Teach me to shade

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Here's one of my few attempts to shade my drawings during my entire life. I used Irfanview's Image -> Color Corrections -> Brightness to get the 'right' shade colors for this one. Anyways, I need your help to know what parts of a drawing to shade and also how different colors work when a shadow is cast to them.

[Cynder]

Which program do you use to draw? And there are lots of really useful tutorials on DeviantART for you to look at, my favourite is this one. Good luck with trying! (by the way, I'd suggest not linearting where the shading goes! It can be confusing because it becomes hard to tell when something is a different colour and something is shaded)

[Blademaster]

^What she said. Don't use solid lines at the edge of shading: Keep the edge the same color as the rest of the shade so it's a more gradual change.

As for what parts to shade, that's up to you. Imagine a light source (Sun, spotlight, whatever) somewhere around the drawing and then just think of where the light wouldn't hit them. THAT is where you shade.