A couple weeks ago I wrote about how to shade basic shapes such as cubes while paying attention to the light source. This week I’m going to cover the more complex three dimensional shapes that weren’t covered in the last post.

Ovals – to shade these, it is very similar to shading a sphere with some slight variations. The gradient will be similar to that of a sphere, but it will be more oblong. The shadow underneath will also stretch further in the direction facing away from the light source. A good way to practice shading this type of shape, is to set out an egg in varying light sources to understand how the light and shadows fall.

Cones – are shaded the darkest at the furthest point away from the light source and lightest closest to the light source. You can do this by making a gradient along the curve of the cone. Be sure to have a highlight at the furthest point from the light source because the light reflects around the cone, due to its circular base.

Cylinders – the side that is closest to the light source will be the lightest and will be at its darkest facing away from the light source. Similar to the cone, there will be a highlight at the side facing away from the light source because the light reflects around the cylinder.