[_zaphod_]

I have always had difficulty shading.. people say I'm actually good at it, but I hate my shading technique. I've tried looking at tons of work on here and I always think I "got it" but then I try and it always comes out hte same.

Basically, my shading looks good from far back or whatever, but my line quality/shape/direction/pressure make it so the image looks like shite.
I think the direction of my lines make it so it looks uneven or ragged, i dont know how to describe it.. basically bad and shoddy. I tried going WITH the contour of the figure like everyone says but same thing.

Here's a bad example.. It's a QUICK sketchbook page of a girl on a swing, but you get the idea because the same thing applies, it's just a BETTER looking mess rather than a bad looking mess.
See her upper-inner right leg? those lines there.. I follow the contour just as everyone else does, yet it ends up looking really bad.

Any ideas what makes it like this, or what im doing wrong?
Thanks.

Even making a simple sphere and trying to shade it i run across the problem.

[aphelionart]

mm looks allright to me it's a matter of personal style sometimes, but it looks like you outline and then fill in with shading.. maybe try focusing more on defining the 3-d form (shadows) rather than the flat sillhouette of the figure. i have scratchy haphazard lines too that seem very sporadic and quick, but if you can plan them out well, they work to define the shape and sort of hide themselves as lines. this is of course achieved by varying width and pressure (as well as every other property of line) according to the surfaces.

also, how large is the drawing? using larger paper gives you more room to explore details, so that might help you work out folds and stuff.

my advice (until someone more experienced comes along ) is just keep practicing.. line quality's a defining characteristic for most artists and is something that can't simply be quickly learned but comes through w/experience. you just gotta learn what works best for you and when to use it...

hope that didn't get too off-topic lol..
-matt