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How to Shade Anime Clothing: Techniques for Artistic Coloring

Welcome everyone to a new explanation, here we will review how we can color anime clothes, as we know that adding shading to anime characters' clothes gives them a more beautiful and wonderful look, even if the level of drawing and coloring is modest, shading can help improve the quality of the drawing, and I will show you what is my favorite method that brings the best desired results, so follow me



First, we start drawing and inking the anime character, which I explained a lot in previous lessons. We color the shirt with a layer separate from the layer of coloring the pants.


How to Shade Anime Clothing


Now we add shading, by adding a new layer above the base color layer, and then we choose the airbrush tool, which will allow us to shade.


We draw with the brush at the edges of the shirt, and this is indicated on the left side of the image, by the red arrow.


How to Shade Anime Clothing

How to Shade Anime Clothing

When we color the edges of the shirt, or any side you prefer, we choose the eraser tool, through which we will erase small parts of the shading, as indicated by the red arrow.

The airbrush should be large and the eraser should be very small.

How to Shade Anime Clothing



Here I posted an explanatory video for you, to understand the idea more.





It's very simple, just draw with the brush, then erase some parts directly with the eraser, not only on the edges of the anime character's shirt, but also in the middle, and this is clear in the picture

How to Shade Anime Clothing


This will be the final result of the shading. Notice the gradation in the shading as it looks beautiful and nice, and in line with the curves of the shirt itself.


How to Shade Anime Clothing

How to Shade Anime Clothing




An additional step is to add a second shading that is darker than the basic shading. We define the shadow, then add a new layer, and color with the airbrush, but this time at some edges, so that we have a graduated shading, from the light color to the dark.


How to Shade Anime Clothing


Now the lighting stage, we add a new “layer” layer, and add the “shine” effect specified in the image, in order to get lighting, then we draw with the airbrush only in the places where the shirt protrudes, and we reduce the size of the brush and start coloring in specific places


How to Shade Anime Clothing


This is an illustrative picture of the previous stages.


How to Shade Anime Clothing


After the shading stage, comes the lighting stage, all using only two tools.

How to Shade Anime Clothing





This is the final result, it is considered one of the easiest ways to get distinctive shading for anime characters' clothes, use this method, and you will definitely be amazed by the results, I hope you liked it, don't forget to practice well, see you next time


How to Shade Anime Clothing

How to Shade Anime Clothing

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