How to Cel Shade: Avoid These Common Mistakes!

This is part one of a multi-part digital shading tutorial series; Instructor Jessie explains the ✔️ Do's and ❌ Don'ts' of Cel Shading (also known as Toon Shading). This is "How to Cel Shade 101". She briefly explains the differences between cel (using blocks of shadow) and soft shading (gradients, blending shadow) and then dives into how to place shadows based on the shape of the object and how proximity and size affect the length and need for shadows. She'll also give you some insight into adding bounce light and occlusion shadows to further enhance your artwork.

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🕓 Timestamps:
0:00 - What is Cel Shading?
0:05 - History of "Cel Shading"
0:37 - Where to Place Your Cel Shadows
3:45 - Understanding Shadows are a Shape, not a Line
4:16 - How Proximity & Size Change the Shadow
6:28 - Cel shading is a Simplification of Shadow!
7:13 - Can I include Bounce & Subsurface with Cel Shading?
8:54 - What Topic would YOU like us to cover next?

#wingedcanvas #arttutorial #artnerds #artschool #celshading #celshade #digitalart #digitalshading #digitaldrawing #digitaldrawings #digitaldraw #levelupyourlife #digitalartwork #howtocelshade #drawings #drawingskill #drawingskills

[mutecryptid]

My experience with “I can only soft shade I don’t know how to cel shade”, is that no matter what it feels unfinished and I can’t just leave it unfinished.

[everydayday]

“Shadows are shapes, not lines” haha thank you that shot needed to hit my artwork lol.

[keropeko]

now i know why my arts sometimes look kinda off, thank you for this !

[StrawberryBunnyBoba]

Literally perfect timing, I needed to figure this stuff out for my portfolio lol

[JayDay]

These tips were actually useful, thank you. I'll keep them in mind when i learn light and shadow. Cause let's be honest, if we don't know how to draw shadows, both soft and cell shading will look bad

[UrSammich]

Explaining it as shadows are shapes not lines actually made sense to me. I wish my art teachers told me this instead of "oh put in what you see". Yeah if I have a reference/model in front of me it makes sense, but I see so many shadows that I'm like "what is this? I see too many places to shadow in". This was mostly in life drawing and still life.

[No_Vanilla]

Of course I get a cel shading video halfway through my first cel shading project.

[Sylvia_]

Somehow out of everyone I’ve ever listened to (tips for art) you are the ONLY person who’s actually stuck to my head other people either stretched the explanation out to much and made too much going on and everything to difficult to fully understand but you make things short and simple and explain why things need to be the way they are and tips within the tips

I know some of that will not make sense

[oldmanofthemountains]

This reminds me of the inking step when comics were still hand-drawn

[error__]

I was not expecting to learn SO MUCH in a video of less than 10 minutes. You explained easily and directly to the point, kept me focused all the time. Thank you, I will aply this knowledge. Thank you.

[chasformer]

You can also use a single color for a shadow (light purple) and click multiply on a layer. Though I don't know if thats still a good idea or not.

[melissaregan]

Thank you. It is so much easier to learn HOW to do something if I know WHY it's done that way.

[WillowFrogs]

You guys must be psychic this is just what I was needing, thanks for the help it’s super

[stpdy_tmy]

Eyy this is really helpful!! I really suck at shading so this helps a lot!! Im glad i found this!

[dougiestarr]

Thank you so much for the tips!! Ive been doing cell shading for a while but this has helped me so much!!

[hauralins]

Omg!! You don't know how grateful I am that this tutorial appeared in my recommendations! I always hated trying to shade my drawings with cel shading because it felt like it was being done wrong or something was missing. But now I have a new perspective on this technique and I can't wait to try using it again!✨💕

[paolacintron]

Felt called out at 02:07 hahaha but in a good way. Love the look of cel shading and I need to practice more!

[El-Nico]

Thanks again for the tutorial, really helping a lot

[Lycanmoon]

Waiting waiting, it may take a while but I'm waiting

[PFanima]

This is literally the best cel shade tutorial I've seen, TYSM for helping us all with this (and for not making the tutorial a whopping 30mins lol)!