Tutorial: Fan Art from League of Legends, Gentleman Poro

This drawing is fairly simple, but the cartoon style combined with the shading makes it unique. I decided to showcase this picture since it shows a clear example of Crosshatching. Now the drawing above is of a simple creature that is not overly complex, but the shading is done exactly where it needs to be to create depth. Just start with a light outline of whatever you're drawing, whether it be the picture above or your own thing. The lines for the outline in the above drawing are all smooth and soft, so keep that in mind while creating an outline if you want to create the same effect. Don't be fussy over how accurate you are though, since it's the shading that makes the drawing look good. The Crosshatching here is fairly light due to the spaces in between the lines, but it still is effective. In order to Crosshatch you want to start by understanding where to shade. So keep note of the light direction and follow it, the above image has a light direction from the upper left area coming down upon the creature.

Anyway Crosshatching requires layering if you want to increase the intensity of your shading. So in the above picture, some areas only use one line to Crosshatch rather than creating X's. For example around the mouth and the tongue. The areas where you want to shade darker using Crosshatching you keep overlapping lines. To start Crosshatching, choose one line direction and don't draw too many lines, try to keep a bit of space between each line. Next figure out where you want your Crosshatching to be darker, then draw lines that are the opposite direction to overlap your previous lines. I would say Crosshatching is much easier then regular shading once you understand where you need to shade, since you can easily change how dark you want your shading to be. The only difficult thing is understanding where to shade, a technique one of my teacher's taught me was to squint your eyes while looking at whatever you're drawing to see the shadows easier.

Feel free to post your outcome in the comment section below, have fun!

Artist: Harrietalicefox
Picture retrieved from: Gentleman Poro