ABOUT THIS LESSON
One of our greatest goals as comic artists is to create the most impactful, page-popping art possible - and there's a number of tools we've got at our disposal to achieve just that!
Perspective and foreshortening are two very effective techniques to give form added depth and dimension. Lighting is another one. Then of course, there's rendering - possibly the most powerful, depth enhancing asset we've got in our comic art arsenal.
But how do we render for comics? Well, traditionally comics were drawn with line alone. If you wanted to shade a particular area of the artwork, you couldn't blend the inked line as you would graphite, or paint.
Instead, you'd use a technique called crosshatching.
Hatching, and crosshatching allowed comic artists who worked in contour line alone to create subtle, gradient transitions between pure black and white values, while at the same time, describing the forms those hatches wrapped around.
But that isn't the only purpose crosshatches serve...
They also allow you to describe the material and texture of the form you're rendering. Whether the surface of the form is rough, reflective, organic, or hard-surfaced, these effects can be applied using a variety of crosshatching methods.
In this introductory lesson, I'm going to show you what crosshatching is, how it works and multiple-crosshatch styles commonly used in comic book illustration. You'll learn how to create crosshatch gradients, and how to use them to push the depth of your forms.
I'll also give you a bunch of exercises you can practice to become a crosshatching master!
