Creating A Shadow

In addition to making images by tracing with my mind, I also wanted to try to bump my art to another level by adding new expectations. Shading. In previous art I've never attempted to shade before as I thought it just was an extra detail, I recently saw how important it was by looking at a sketched copy of an anime that I drew and saw that something was missing and that shading was the problem. Creating shadows and spots of darkness on a different type of scenery can unknowingly create a sense of realism and allow us to feel more connected to a piece of art. I don't have the attention span to look at a youtube video so I asked a friend that was more experienced with art than me and she gave me some tips on shading. 1st that it is very important that you have a source of light coming from a single direction so that the level and amount of shading makes geometric sense. 2nd, you mainly want to focus shading on areas where they meet new ones, for example where the arm meets the chest in this photo or where the legs meet the shirt. 3rd, the level of shading is relevant to where the light source is coming from, whether it be the sun, a lamp, a candle, or whatever you want it to be. The closer the area of interest is to the light source, the larger yet lighter the area will be. In illustrator i was able to make the character model and figure while in photoshop i did the shading, added the blush, fixed up a few details and tried my best to make it look like a good picture. Do not ask why i chose to make a Neko though. Clearly my picture is not the best in terms of what I was trying to succeed at but I feel this is a new territory that I can explore in order to make what I create more relatable and lifelike, and I'm hoping that I can do it by myself one day.