Grrr why do i suck? (need help with shading)

[Mouth for war]

Ok i've been struggling with this tree and rock for a little while now and i need a few tips on how to shade properly. I find it quite hard to shade and i can't draw so well. As you can see the graphics are very simple. I want the shading to look nice without using lots of different colors. The biggest problem is the tree. The trunk doesn't look round, more squarelike. Hope someone can help me out. Feel free to do paintovers
Thanks in advance

[cobra79]

Very nice tree and an even nicer rock. I like the little details on it.
I tried to improve the shading with the light source in the upper right.
My shadow looks messy, but I am too lazy now  and in any way not a great artist myself. 

[Tuomas]

when drawing leaves, you get the feeling after a lot of practise, but before that, take a look outside. And then draw them imagine them coming out of the branches, and think, where's the light source, and where would it not go. In case of a tree the light source is usually the sun, so the light would hit from above. I would start from drawing the while tree dark, and then adding details by actually bringing the lightened parts alive somehow. Same goes for the tree trunk. Note that both of these are very rough, so there's never a flat surface, and therefore, there's lots of shadows and lighter parts.

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/7540/kattoonytestisu1.png

something my brother drew a while ago, was supposed to be for my game but got rejected. It's not finished, but you see that there's a direction for the light, and the shadows are generally behind obstacles.

[scotch]

Quickly taking the lighting further than the first edit...  I'll suggest some shading tips since you asked, perhaps something will be useful.

I'd recommend choosing colours that are further apart. It's difficult to add volume with very similar shades. Also look at converging the colours towards the colour of the lighting in your scene. For this edit I've gone more yellow, like warm sunlight, but any colour can work - just don't think trees are green and rocks are grey, because that's not always true!

The most important thing in shading is identifying your lightsource. You can't shade 3d objects without knowing where the light is. Trees are 3d like anything else, and because you can't think in terms of thousands of leaves, think about the parts of the foliage as distinct shapes, tufts, balls, depressions, etc, and shade accordingly. You can do any number of textures for foliage, of course, look at different sorts of trees blur your eyes a bit, and identify the patterns they form.

On the original image you have light colours in the middle going out to darker ones on the edges (or vice versa), which is a technique people call "pillow shading". It's not a realistic shading technique generally, and unless you think your graphics look good in that style you should probably look at more natural lighting. Essentially that means picking the direction the light comes from, and putting light shades on one side, and dark on the other, not dark on both sides and light in the middle.

[InCreator]

Scotch made superb tree, but for the rock, use cobra79's edit. And note what he did.
Mostly, stone materials have rough, geometrical shade.

[cobra79]

I love your tree scotch, especially the illusion of gravity in your leaves.

[cat]

Wow, scotch, that's amazing! May I ask what tool did you use to draw the tree, especially the dotted areas? Did you use a special brush for this? What program did you use?

[Khris]

unacceptable.

Edit: thought so.

[Moresco]

Hrm I'm no expert but isn't that just dithering? You can do it by hand or in a number of other ways, but like I say I don't know...i've never done any of that.

[cobra79]

@cat
It may be a bit off-topic but "Pro Motion" has a dither brush mode you could use.
For Photoshop:
1) paint 1 pixel and select 2 pixels (one painted and one transparent right next to the painted one)
2) File->DefineBrush
3) paint 2 pixels diagonally and select the whole 2x2 field
4) File->DefinePattern
5) in the brush options you can now choose the pattern and the form of the brush, together they should result in a checkboard pattern.

[Tuomas]

or just amnually dither it since there are no big areas with it, it wouldn't take too much time.

[CodeJunkie]

Fantastic edit Scotch, and a great reference piece too.

[Buckethead]

All nice and stuff but I think it really looses the cartoon style with all these edits.

[SinSin]

thank god im not the only dithering person

Great edits to you both

Mouth for war your art does not suck... you just have a different art style to the one that is in your head this happens to me alot. You picture something then when you try to do it, it seems totally different. tip draw concepts and scan them for reference  if you feel your drawing is not great take a look around the net for ideas then practise copying them using the style that is in your head by finding the appropriate tutorial and above all have patience. Remember even Van Gough started with pencils

Dont give in    

Sin  

[Medical Waste]

Yep, references are the best, a tree you can easily look outside, or just use Google Image Search, I use that A LOT.

[Moresco]

Yep, references are the best, a tree you can easily look outside, or just use Google Image Search, I use that A LOT.

I second google image search.  whenever I'm stuck with anything, I look at refs on google image.

[cat]

@cat
It may be a bit off-topic but "Pro Motion" has a dither brush mode you could use.
For Photoshop:
1) paint 1 pixel and select 2 pixels (one painted and one transparent right next to the painted one)
2) File->DefineBrush
3) paint 2 pixels diagonally and select the whole 2x2 field
4) File->DefinePattern
5) in the brush options you can now choose the pattern and the form of the brush, together they should result in a checkboard pattern.

Hey, thank you! I tried it and it is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much!