I've always thought that my art needed a little more flavor; a little more life maybe. So I started a bit of shading in some of my more recent strips of 'That Random Paint Comic' as shown through this link:

http://www.drunkduck.com/That_Random_Paint_Comic/index.php?p=214072

Does it look okay? Is there something wrong with it? It's been bothering me for a while now. It'd be cool if someone could show me what proper 'shading style' is like.

The fact you can do any shading at all in Paint is surprising.

As for the shading itself, I find it's almost unnoticeable.

I suppose I could whip out my Garchomp image in cases like this:



I left in my palette by accident when I uploaded him, but that helps me a bit.

First you want to build a palette that consists of your flat color, your highlights, and your shadows. You want to be bold in your shading. In your demonstration, you used only thin lines to shade the edges of your characters and the colors didn't quite have enough contrast. This is fine if you want it to look like it is dimly lit from the front. Still, try to imagine what it would look like lit from above or to the left.

In paint, you can add shadows using the line tool with your shadow color; create the outline of where you want your shadow to be, then simply fill with the paint bucket. It's actually pretty simple and doesn't leave those little white lines that you can get from Photo Shop.

Oh, I see now, so create a palette. Thanks for the help!

Your comic is quite impressive, given the tools you're adapting to bring your ideas to life. Great job! :) Very innovative.

Jules
It'd be cool if someone could show me what proper 'shading style' is like.

There are all sorts of shading styles, so there is no one proper style. In your case, with your artistic style and using Paint, I would not try to emulate complex shading patterns. Rather, simple straightforward shapes for shadings would be best. And I'd advise not using the palette of bright colors that Paint automatically gives you, try finding more "organic" looking colors to shade with.

Kohdok
I suppose I could whip out my Garchomp image in cases like this:



I left in my palette by accident when I uploaded him, but that helps me a bit.

First you want to build a palette that consists of your flat color, your highlights, and your shadows. You want to be bold in your shading. In your demonstration, you used only thin lines to shade the edges of your characters and the colors didn't quite have enough contrast. This is fine if you want it to look like it is dimly lit from the front. Still, try to imagine what it would look like lit from above or to the left.

In paint, you can add shadows using the line tool with your shadow color; create the outline of where you want your shadow to be, then simply fill with the paint bucket. It's actually pretty simple and doesn't leave those little white lines that you can get from Photo Shop.

Really great shading!