So, I'm working on a head texture, but I seriously need some help on shading and lighting to make this look the best. I tried, but it doesn't look right to me. Looked up some references here and there to see how it's done, but I still just can't get it right. Any form of help would be awesome! Plus, once it's done. I'll add it to this along with the WIPs I have.





Program: Painter for Android

Seems to cover the most. Takes a while to get it tho but don't give up!

Personally I think your hair is too detailed. But it might be a roughed up doll you're making.

Oh gosh, the link seems to break when I try to play it. What's it called so I can try and look it up myself. And thank you!

Yay! The link is working. And alright, I think I see what you mean. I'll try and fix that. It does look a little busy.

Oh and another tip: You use pure black to define lines in your hair. Black should not be used like that. Use a much darker color of the hair and shade your way through.

Oh, so that should also be the shading color, or close to it. I gotcha. Also, I actually remember seeing that video years ago and got frustrated and never returned to it again. That's actually helpful that you showed it to me again. Gonna be watching it a lot while making this. The music from Angel Beats was a real treat this time around since I haven't seen the anime when I first found it.

I'll see what I can do, thank you again!

I made a quick explaining picture for you:



As you can see, this applies even in the real world.
Even the darkest contour of my hand is not truly black.

You are correct, I see that.. I've tried that before, but I still manage to do it wrong. I may have been using hues that didn't match the base color. Either way, I think I have a decent chance at getting this right. Gonna find out sometime soon.

What you've done so far looks great. But remember, shading is different to shadowing when it comes to drawing. In the real world; yes they're the same concept but what you seem to have done is create more of a casted shadow of the hair strands, which does give the whole piece an element of depth although might not make the head look so much like a 3D round object (I'm doing my best to explain). It looks a little like the hair strands are 'Floating in mid air'. To get the 3D effect of the shading you must always think about: Where the light source is (Where on the canvas it's coming from) and how far away different features are from the camera. Usually you'd have shading away from the light source. The centre bunch of hair has shading on both sides so I presume the 'light source' is directly in front of the drawing. Try connecting various strands together then do close shading to create a more realistic look; which is what you have done in some areas.

eyes are either too big and too spaced.
you dont need to put separated lines on the hair, instead you put a clump lines inside the hair shape.

try the shading as freelancer said and work more on the eyes, eyes must call attenttion.

Eyes are too far away from each other and the mouth is too high up as well as that the hair is going through the eyes rn