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Section 3 Creating Technology
rough sketches, after the external features
are added, the sketches are finished. For
refined sketches, additional techniques
can be used to add more detail and life to
the sketches.
Refining Techniques
There are some techniques that can
be used on refined sketches to make the
sketches appear more realistic. Shading
and shadowing are the two most common
techniques. Both of these techniques illus-
trate how the objects will look when placed
in light. They add depth and dimension to
flat sketches.
Shading
Shading is a technique that shows
how light is reflected from an object. This
technique relies on a light source. Most
designed objects come in contact with
either sunlight or interior lighting. Shading
helps to show how the object will look
in either of these two light sources. This
technique also allows the designer to see
the shape and form of the object. To begin
shading, the designer must determine from
which direction the light source is coming.
The direction of the light source determines
how the object is shaded. The standard is
to imagine that the light source is located
over the designer’s left shoulder.
There are several techniques used
in shading. The most common is using
different tones to create the shading
effects. A tone is a shade of color. Gray
is a tone between black and white. In this
method of shading, the area of the object
closest to the light source is the lightest
tone. The area furthest from the light is the
darkest. This effect can be created with the
edge of a pencil or markers. When using a
pencil, designers create the darker areas
in one of two ways. They can either press
harder in the darker areas or go over these
areas several times. When using markers
to shade, the designer selects markers
of different tones to create light and dark
areas. See Figure 13-23.
Other shading techniques use either
dots or lines instead of different tones
Figure 13-22. A guitar with the external features.
Figure 13-23. Shading and shadowing help
designers see the shape and form of the object.
(Design Central)