Textures & Shading — Printable Cheat Sheets

Your drawing has the right shape, but it looks flat. This is what's missing.

Textures & Shading shows how to make the surface of things look real: bark, grass, stone, water, clouds, fur, feathers and more. Each texture has a finished pencil swatch and three short steps, so you can copy it straight into your drawing.

What's inside (12 pages):

• Light, shadow and value: the value scale, the five tones on a ball, pressure and three pencils.
• Four ways to make tone: hatching, cross-hatching, stippling and smooth blending.
• 20 textures: oak and birch bark, leaves, grass, stone wall, pebbles, wood grain, clouds, still water, ripples, reflections, a water drop, short and long fur, feathers, wool, brick, roof tiles, fabric folds and glass.
• If your drawing looks flat: four common mistakes and the fix for each.
• Put it all together: one small scene with eight textures, and a swatch sheet to fill in.

Made to sit next to The Slow Pencil drawing books: draw the shape from the book, then add the texture from these sheets.

Instant digital download (PDF). Nothing is shipped. Print at home on A4 or US Letter (choose "Fit to page").