The Shading Lesson That Made My Art Career Possible

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The shading structure I ALWAYS USE! A simple system for any painting or drawing. Capture light and form with a simple system of tones/values - in any art style!
LINKS:
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Website: www.marcobucci.com
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[@cmango5865]

It's genuinely astounding how many insanely useful art tips, pointers, and fundamental breakdowns Marco has provided on his youtube channel FOR FREE! Amazing as always.

[@Bhodisatvas]

Exactly! I have learnt so much from him especially mixing colour.

[@LolaBeM3]

100% Facts

[@dadimunteanu]

Yep

[@dadimunteanu]

I mean, his channel is a whole school

[@pezvonpez]

ai generated comment

[@milehighslacker4196]

As a beginner, I was taught that "your darkest light is lighter than your lightest dark and vice versa (your lightest dark is darker than your darkest light)." I think that concept is part of this video explanation. Thanks!

[@Emil_m]

I think remembering the “rules” is more difficult (for me anyway) than understanding what’s happening. So for me, the guiding principle is: the place where the light hits the object is going to be the brightest. I used to put that same brightness in other places and it looked wrong, because this is not possible in nature. 1) figure out where the light is hitting the object - save that “color” to be used only for this, cannot use it anywhere else. 2) figure out where the light has hardest time reaching - save that color to be used only for this, nothing can be darker than this. It may be possible to go lighter and darker, but then it will create confusion because then it’ll look like these new places are darker/brighter. Unless you actually make that decision of course. For me, this used to be the mistake I made frequently. I’d just pick something brighter without realizing and then adjust things to match, I would lose the impact I was going for and the whole paining would have weak overall contrast. For your brightest color, you should be able to use highlights on top of it. And even the highlights which is the absolute brightest for your object, doesn’t need to be Maximum bright. Just need to maintain the relationship. For example you can load up a photo and reduce brightness slider. You can see everything is getting darker, but you can still recognize where the highlights are at. The more diffused the light source, the less pronounced the highlights will be. The highlights is what’s telling you how strong the light source is. For the darkest color you choose, it also doesn’t need to be absolute black possible. As long as there’s nothing darker, it will be perceived properly. So once you make these two choices you just have to stick with them.

[@wordforger]

The tricks I've learned over time basically come down to this: 1) light on the side the light is coming from, dark on the opposit side. 2) Certain objects/colors will reflect light on the other side. 3) If light comes from different directions so will shadows. 4) The brighter the light, the harsher the shadow. 5) If an object is being hit by two lights at once, the brighter light wins out when it comes to the light side. 6) Colored light leaves shadows of a complementary tone.

[@Emil_m]

@@wordforger yup, #4 is very important for authentic look, both of those pieces of visual information make it feel believable. #6 makes it even more realistic

[@Andybowbandy]

That’s what have I been missing! Half tones are not actually halftones, and they are apart of the light family. I wish this video existed a decade ago my renderings wouldn’t have had to suffer and my time. Thank you so much I finally now understand!

[@Andybowbandy]

I took halftones to literally 😅

[@Silustrations]

we can't blame ourselves - the person who named them is at fault :D!@@Andybowbandy

[@Andybowbandy]

@@Silustrations Your right! He or she should have known art people can take things too literally like me self

[@pat4005]

You could have found it for free in many art instruction books in the public library. Books created by traditional artists. And/Or, you could have simply done life drawings of simple objects in order to study how light hits dimensional objects during different times of the day and under different lighting conditions. It's all good, AND, as always, practice makes perfect! Rendering is also the best way to describe what is being done (as opposed to the term "shading". Shade is what is found under trees. 🙃

[@Call-me-Al]

​@@pat4005 Unfortunately not everywhere has libraries, which is an outrage as they are a very important part of local communities. They've been increasingly defunded the past half century in many areas.

[@Ferodra]

For those struggling with bounce/indirect light: What helped me most in painting it is to imagine *every* lit part of a surface as somewhat emissive. As long as you take into account distance and light intensity (+ the inverse square law), it helps a ton to make a full piece feel coherent. I did tend to make my pieces way too dark before randomly realizing this while working in 3D

[@allanredhill8682]

youre without a doubt the best free artistic learning recource on youtube. The fact that youre not only a knowledgable artist but also a great teacher and are putting out this content for free is insane. Wouldnt be half as far along my art journey as iam right now without your content for real

[@MaxDev]

He’s great and all buuuuuutttt *proko*

[@allanredhill8682]

@@MaxDev I would take 5 vids from marco over 20 from proko at any time. He just explains thing in such a concise and cohesive way that even a non artist would understand the principles hes talking about. Maybe thats just the way I learn but Marcos content is top tier. His 10 minutes to better painting series is literally all you need in theory to understand how art works

[@summero-my5in]

I like him and sinix

[@Art_Inexperiente]

@@summero-my5in Sinix is great!

[@MaxDev]

@@allanredhill8682 fair, we learn differently and i’d do the same with proko videos

[@whatiamdoinghere1788]

you made it sound so so easy that it feels so obvious and even silly, but applying this to drawing makes everything so so much easier to understand and draw, wow!! Thank you!

[@trixonic6934]

I’ve been watching you for years and after years of aimless practice I have finally made it into the world of product design. If you saw how bad I was when I started to where I am now you would never know the countless hours I put in just drawing from observation everyday and kept it all to myself. It feels great

[@velvetbees]

This is a far better presentation than I received in my university art classes. One thing you explained is how the dark cloth did not create the halo effect from the indirect lighting, but a colored base does. That's because black absorbs light. Thank you for that reminder.

[@sumicmusic]

Thanks for this tutorial on edging! I found it really easy to edge after watching this!

[@heckYEAHman.]

Crazy that a 14 minute video was all it took to make me start edging for 5 hours straight. Art videos are SO GOOD man

[@shadowstar1286]

Hey Marco last year at Light Box Expo I stopped by your booth and told you how blown away I was by the quality of education and editing you have in your videos. You told me that you spend a lot of time editing. I haven't watched in a while but I'm happy to say your work is just as impressive as ever. I won't be going to LBX this year so I figured I'd drop a comment here.

[@hoangoan9529]

Thank you for videos you make, you really make my art journey easier without college

[@LabradorPeninsula]

Every time I see a new video from Marco I get this incredibly strong urge to draw more, you can just see by the way he paints how much he is enjoying it

[@Mr.McWatson]

This is one of the best breakdowns I've heard for shading. The light family explanation really drove it home.

[@Txour1]

This is the stuff you dont think about until you have to use it

[@cameronbartlett856]

I've not dabbled in art in over 10 years, but this... I will remember this if I ever get back into painting

[@deep6393]

I recently got back into art after like 10 years of a creative block and it's so good to be back!!! I hope you start painting again soon!!

[@tkataby73]

I've watched endless lessons about shading spheres but you explain it in an awesome way! I finally saw it when you also applied it to the face. Thank you soooo so much!

[@QuietLumina]

Your ability to teach is just incredible. I have been watching the facial places course from your website and have learned so much. It makes me feel excited to practice because I actually understand what I’m trying to do.

[@ziltoidtheomniscient2398]

Reminds me of the first video I ever saw from you, many many years ago! Unfortunately I fell out of art, but I always loved the theory and craft of it. Thanks for this amazing update and all your educational content, Marco.

[@ryanmcw7878]

Thank you Marco, you are such an incredible teacher and am always happy to see new videos from you!

[@MugenGlider82]

Thanks for taking these fundamental concepts and immediately applying them to a piece. A lot videos I find do the first half well enough but neglect the latter. More importantly, you make it simple enough to digest. Appreciate you, Marco!

[@LovelyTrendyCoolGirl]

Thank you, this lesson was much needed recently as I was trying to wrap my brain around the different types of values in terms of light and shadows 🙏

[@fiftyshades8706]

It’s amazing how much in depth info you compile into each of your vids all for the cost of a subscription like and comment! You’re truly a kind soul, and I genuinely wish you well in everything you do 🙏🏾 hope to one day share my works with you and the world very soon

[@97scuoch]

Everytime I come back to one of your videos I learn something new even if I think I have already got eveything out of it. The more you know the more you can learn and with your channel I'm always learning. Thanks.

[@byzoemay]

Thank you so much Marco, this information is priceless! You're helping so many artists who can't afford classes/art college. You break this down so well, it's really helping me to understand!

[@LilChuunosuke]

This is an AWESOME, high quality, easy to understand tutorial! I've been working on leveling up my drawing lately and this showed up in my recommended at the perfect time. The way you describe things is so clear and easy to understand. I really appreciate you sharing this with the art community for free its going to help a LOT of artists.

[@bielxcorrea]

Man, you are just the absolute best. It’s like you purposefully set out to answer exactly the questions I had!

[@iamthestormthatisapproaching69]

This is the video I needed! Thank you! I'll now be able to color with confidence knowing this!

[@fenston]

Marco, you're a bright light in the long darkness of my art learning process.

[@grahamothy424]

You’ve got talent in your paintings but you also have talent in your passion for teaching art. The way you explain and order and generalize things is so helpful. I rewind once or twice and I just permanently retain these core concepts. Thank you for putting forth so much effort into making your videos. I’ll forever be a fan

[@VLAD.....]

I've been going through Dorian Iten's Light guide and this is a very great video that helps me understand those lessons even better

[@cynloh2302]

Thank you so much for this! I'm going to be teaching a class on light and shadow in a few months, you inspire me so much!

[@LoganE]

Watching you work on the example painting is incredible

[@BlackKara]

Yeah I have gone back and watched this over and over again. Not because it isn't clear, but like. This is so good. I've been struggling with value a lot and this helps so much.

[@discoeur]

thank you marco bucci for being one of the best art teachers online :3

[@pencurytimun7693]

Thank you for this turorial. This teach me a lot!!

[@johnsantanaguio5056]

Man I love you, nothing more to say. You are the best teacher period. I've never seen this quality of digital content not even on really good universities, I imagine if all my classes were like this on school and university everything would be probably different.

[@dranipani]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@elleeo1495]

Excellent fundamental teaching, Marco! Thank you so much!

[@bloxycola9109]

Marco, you have just single-handedly taught me how to shade correctly after I've been doing this all wrong for so many years. My shading always looked sloppy and muddy, so thank you for making this.

[@TheMiniatureDoctor]

This is incredible. I've read about this so many times, but I only understand it now! You're a genius

[@alenabraune781]

Very helpful lesson! Thank you very much for condensing and presenting the information in such an easy understandable way!

[@octonolite_0]

Marco, thanks as always for taking these concepts and breaking them down scientifically and yet somehow making the information so digestible.

[@gaberauch1323]

Awesome video Marco, thanks for this one.

[@aylinpiscitello5204]

I think that‘s the „Klick“ i needed. I will immediately grap my sketchbook in the Morning to practise. Thank you VERY MUCH! I watched a ton of Videos about Light and shadow and colour But didnt understand the principle till now. You‘re explanations were really understandable to me. I hope that’s the piece of understanding besides watching a Reference I needed to go on on my journey.

[@snuffells]

Thank you Marco, this video is such a great lesson, awesome !

[@riaayo5321]

I have never had lighting in terms of these family groupings explained this way before, and I really appreciate the insight. I had not considered grouping halftone into the light itself and often defined light/shadow and then blended that edge to get the halftone. I'll clearly be going into it with a different perspective now.

[@Vorpal_Wit]

You are a fantastic educator, Marco.

[@gloriouschoiceofausername6392]

Wonderful video! Thank you for this lesson 🥰

[@colehenry5915]

Love you Marco. I would not have been able to understand these concepts as easily had you not explained them. The simple is profound!

[@CharlesRoger893]

Marco you are a gem! Never change pls!

[@LovinLnCottage]

What a great video! Thank you for making this foundational lesson so understandable for beginners. I am a retired teacher of both science and art, so I admire good teaching where ever I see it. Keep up the good work! 🙏☮️❤️🖖

[@lh7717]

what a great teacher!

[@MiauxCatterie]

you just made light and shadow make so much sense to me. thank you. im subscribing for sure.

[@thecompl33tnoob]

Excellent video! I have my own tip to throw in for beginners, which seems to be implied but not stated outright: In design school, for rendering, our teachers taught us that "cast shadows are always as sharp as possible," and that "rounded/form shadows are always as smooth of a gradient as possible." Obviously this isn't always true in real life (you can even see at @2:07, the cast shadow from his hand is quite fuzzy due to his hand being so close to the light source), but it was a very handy place to begin. Most of the things we were rendering were artificial manmade objects and products and with bright artificial lighting, so this worked fine. Again, it's not always strictly true, but adhering to those two rules to begin will really help your art look realistic as a baseline, then you can go in and refine/fuzz some of those cast shadows or sharpen some of those rounded shadows as needed. Hope this helps someone!

[@ajst784]

You're a great teacher!

[@nuffen]

AMAZING AS ALWAYS MARCOOO! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

[@folcochofo]

Amazing tutorial! Thanks so much

[@doodlegame8704]

I’ve been needing a video like this!

[@PlushmayhemVT]

Thank you for this video. While I feel this is all stuff I knew, your demonstration has helped tie it all together and become a cohesive thing for me.

[@royalwumititu3934]

That was very clear, very clear, simple, precise, and that's valuable, thank you

[@RealDuendeNoFake]

I really enjoyed this, it honestly makes me want to pick up my tablet again after not drawing/painting for half a year.

[@WankiTank]

Man this is so helpful. I'm super into very simplistic cell shade and my shadows never seem to work out when I tried to give it just a little more variety. you actively have to merge different types of lighting and shadow with one another, even across families sometimes, e.g. drawing ambient light as unshaded. aaah my brain. it's actually more complicated (if you want to make it just a little fancy) to draw like that than to include the half tones in the first place. I never knew

[@MrGamerstellar]

Another day , another great lesson by great teacher ♥️🙏🏻

[@cridow]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

[@plushdragonteddy]

this is SO helpful !! shading is the one thing i’ve never 100% understood, and i’m realizing now that it’s because i didn’t consider the bounce! thank you for this :D

[@shawna4801]

Subscribed within a microsecond! Can't wait to binge watch...thank you so much!

[@mikedimples]

As always, brilliant lesson

[@manuprasadgopinath]

love the video -- thanks Marco !

[@zebontheweb]

This is a great resource, thanks!!

[@hongyizhou1734]

such a great lesson! Learned more than in my college lighting course!

[@myclappingfeet]

I always learn a lot from you, sir! Thank you!

[@thomasawl]

Love the tram in the background!

[@menu.config]

This is one of my favorite educational videos on youtube so far

[@transition.medias-kr1pz]

Thank you for this I recently decided to pursue being a game dev and I love this video

[@nikivaszi]

You are the one of the best art teacher on the internet landscape! 🤗

[@bumgobum]

Thank you man!

[@holyhalloweenbatman]

What an outstanding tutorial. Instant subscribe.

[@dath.8932]

tks! it helps me really understand about shading and painting in general. And clearly know how my brain work when i look at something.

[@craftykat]

Thank you so much for this

[@LewisStadlerArt]

Fantastic video Marco - thanks.

[@illrain4life]

Dude l LOVE your lesson or TIPS.! I Learned so much from you. I think I'm gonna take a class.

[@sunset_opal]

fantastic video as always, thank you!!

[@fabio_gioffre]

another great video! using the real life example really helped me understand better! Thanks Marco!

[@matka5130]

Speechless

[@PabloEdvardo]

I'm almost 38 and now considering trying painting for the first time in my life. I honestly never knew that art was so technical in a way that leads to creativity rather than restricting it.

[@DarkHarpuia]

Thinking of halftones as "the points at which the form is turning away from the light" is a REALLY helpful mental frame for this. Thanks!

[@stephendelacruzone]

THE best Shading Tutorial... EVER! 💎✨👌

[@drmofasa880]

woah amazing video, thank you!! ❤

[@bakk3731]

i love you marco bucci 😭😭

[@FattyKung]

as someone who enjoy drawing but have no fun or interest or talent in painting, you're my real life angle who make me step further into the world of painting more and more and make more good art🤗 Thank you so much sir!

[@lauraheller643]

Excellent video!!!!! Thank you

[@jazzew]

Cooool... Your explanations are so easy to grasp for me! I'll try out this way of lighting. :D Also, to see a head reference like this is great anyway. :) Thanks!

[@machidraws1]

wonderful video as always marco thanks so much

[@tvsonicserbia5140]

Wow, this is shockingly good. A rare no nonsense art tutorial.

[@joaovitora.pelegrini2000]

I think whis the best video about shadows and rendering i've ever seen

[@Connorses]

This is awesome, it's a lot of things that I had learned from sketching and watching other artists work, but now I have more vocabulary for it. :P And I learned more about ambient light, very cool!

[@phdgraphitti969]

This won you my subscription. A proper explaintion👊🏻

[@CaviteTechnology]

Everything thought here is the same way how I light in a studio setting with photography, great points!

[@carmenleigh1320]

This was very very helpful!!!

[@whatiamdoinghere1788]

I am here yet again because I forgot how to and I am so glad I found this video again, ah, incredible, incredible, thank you. I am big fan of yours now