Great Doodles Vs. Mud: Shading Essentials for Pen and Ink

This course is about how to make consistent, actionable progress drawing with pen and ink. And more specifically, how to doodle quickly and cleanly, without making mud.

Have you ever wondered why some doodles look like masterpieces even though they’re essentially just scribbles?

The answer has to do with shading.

What You’ll Learn

Shading is a technique that anyone can learn and apply right away. With pen and ink, shading goes a long way to making any drawing look great.

The course is structured in three progressive stages where you’ll learn about:

- Shading combinations; what works and what doesn’t

- Shading objects and compositions using light and shadow

- Shading with textures on different surfaces

Why Take This Class

You’ll quickly learn what makes a doodle instantly more readable. Which is useful for a lot of things, such as being able to

- Capture what’s in your head

- Quickly explore concepts

- More accurately represent your ideas

- Develop your art style

The focus of this class is on practice, so that you can experience how the techniques work, giving you more control over how your drawings turn out.

We’ll go through a sequence of exercises and small, achievable projects at each stage to gain confidence through repetition.

Who This Course is For

Whether you’re just starting with pen and ink or looking for guidance on where to go next with your practice, I believe you'll be amazed at how far you can progress in such a short time with just a few fundamental techniques.

You don’t need prior drawing experience. Even though there is emphasis on technique, we’ll not be using templates or references.

We’re simply doodling together, freehand, straight to ink, from theory to action in creative ways.

Course Supplies

For supplies, I recommend a smooth finish inking paper and one or two inking pens. I’ll go through tools and materials in depth in the “Supplies” Lesson.

Course Resources

In the first chapter's 'Resource Folder' you'll find the downloadable PDF with:

- My recommended list of supplies for this class and beyond

- The Shading Combination Chart Example

Course Project

We’ll be doing mini-projects together throughout the lessons.

In the last stage, we’ll go through a final project together that incorporates all of the shading principles that we practiced. You’ll have the option to do the same as mine or create your own.

You're welcome to share your doodles in the Q&A section under "content".

By the end of this course, you'll know how to use shading techniques to bring clarity to a pen and ink doodle, and the confidence to keep progressing beyond.