A Guide to Pencil Sketching Techniques Hatching & Cross-Hatching. These methods are very common and effective ways to add depth to your sketches through shading. ... Stippling. ... Scribbling. ... Circling. ... Smooth Shading & Blending. ... Creating Highlights. ... Rendering. Why Are Drawing and Shading With a Pencil so Hard? Why is shading so difficult? Whether they have been drawing for a while or someone who is just getting started. The truth is that drawing and shading with a pencil aren’t complicated. It only seems that way if you don’t have a solid foundation of proper technique as a part of your skillset. Like anything else in life or in art, it takes time, patience, and practice to learn how to properly shad with a pencil. There are two main mistakes that many artists make when shading with a pencil that can quickly ruin a drawing. First, it’s common for artists to fail to get a full range of values when shading. You have to render in the darkest shadows and show the brightest highlights if you want a drawing to look realistic. Second, it’s widespread for artists to spend far too much time blending their drawings. If you blend your drawing too much, it will lose detail, turning it into a smudgy mess. It’s okay to let some of the pencil marks show. If anything, it gives a drawing more texture and character. Please take a look at this drawing and sketching video course I have created. Use this link. How Do I Get Better at Shading? If you’re hoping for a quick and easy solution that will enable you to become a master of shading with a pencil, you’re going to be disappointed. When you want to get better at anything, there’s only one way to do it, you do it by practicing. Now, the good news is that if you’re an artist, then practicing your craft is something you should enjoy doing. It may not be the most exciting thing in the world, and you may wish you could just skip a few steps and start creating masterpieces. But you can’t. You have to put in the work. You have to practice until shading with a pencil becomes second nature to you. Why is shading so hard, it isn’t once you have spent enough time honing your skills. What approach should you take when practicing pencil shading techniques? You should start out by shading simple geometric shapes. Cubes, triangles, and spheres are all simple shapes that you can work on to begin mastering your shading skills. Try setting up something simple at home. Maybe use a ball and a box, then set up a light source. Sketch it out quickly, but then pay extra attention to shading. Try different techniques. For example, hatching and cross-hatching are often thought of as techniques when drawing with ink. Practice using a rougher shading technique to add texture. Also, practice blending so you can learn to strike a balance between creating soft transitions while also keeping your drawing from becoming dull and smudgy.