Creator Tips and Tricks #12: Hatching and

Cross Hatching

ARTCRUMBS • COMMUNITY • APR 5, 2022

Hatching, you either love it or hate it as an artist. For some people, it can serve as a soothing doodle
technique or become their secret weapon to a beautiful comic or manga page. What exactly is
hatching?

Hatching is a drawing technique using lines or linear strokes to create value and texture throughout
an image. They don't always have to be straight lines, and they don't always have to be neat and
consistent either. There are multiple types of hatching, each providing their own texture that you can
add. In comics and manga, it is used both as a shading technique and a texturing one. It's really very
versatile!

With that out of the way, let's start practicing!

Hatching 101: The Basics

The most basic form of hatching are lines that do not cross and are usually mostly parallel to each
other. They don't have to be perfect, but the basic idea is that they run in the same direction. This
can be used for a wide variety of purposes in art, including value (shading) or effects.

In this sample, "Thor 600 Splash page by Olivier Coipel", hatching is used all over, however let's
focus on the upper left corner first. Those vertical lines are not 100% parallel, but very close to it.
These help emphasize the vertical motion of pounding the walking staff on the ground, as well as the
resulting transformation into Thor. On the right-hand side, I did a little bit of hatching to show that
hatching can look clean and neat, even if the lines are 100% parallel or the lines break up.

You can even use hatching in combination with black fills to create a "feathering" effect, a sort of
gradient between the black and white spaces. The samples above are from TheGreatShono on
Tumblr.

Usually in hatching, we think of it having to be the same thickness of line, or same width apart. There
is a time and place for "messy" hatching and a time for very clean hatching. The trick to using
hatching well is knowing when to be neat and when not being neat will actually get you a better
result. We can change the frequency (closeness of the lines) and density (thickness of the lines) to
create all kinds of effects in hatching!

Speaking of effects, did you know you can also use Hatching for motion effects. Speedlines are one
form of this and manga is especially famous for this.
I cannot possibly talk about hatching and manga without bringing up Berserk (I'll be bringing it up a
few times). Berserk is infamous for its line work, which contains a large variety of hatching. A, B, and
C are all standard linear hatching.

● A: Rain is usually drawn in vertical lines. In this particular case, it's a slight mix of contour
hatching and standard linear hatching.
● B: Guts himself is shaded in a mix of hatching and cross hatching. Kentaro Miura, the
mangaka, drew the lines to go the same angle as the plane of Guts' face, a very typical
choice in hatching. You can really see this where his jaw meets his neck.
● C: Guts' sword is being hit by the rain and Miura has decided to use the angle of the rain
to match the contour of the sword (or it's a coincidence that worked out perfectly). This
does two things, it helps emphasize the flow of motion in this panel, and helps give the
effect of the sword moving through the rain.
● D: This is a type of hatching that occurs all over comics and manga, and we'll talk about
this next! I actually mentioned it above, and it's called "Contour hatching".

Contour Hatching
Contour hatching follows the contour of an object, its shape, its planes that form the object. It's a
great way to help show the surface direction of an object and give it depth. A lot of hatching follows
this type. It's also very helpful for hair and wrinkles, both in clothes and faces.
Cross Hatching
Famous for being extra difficult, Cross hatching takes many forms and can take a LOT of practice.
Cross-hatching requires a steady hand, or at least someone who knows how to control it well. Both
comics and manga use this liberally.

Take note in that cross-hatching and contour hatching usually go together when it is used to shade a
subject. Yusuke Murata's One Punch Man is a fantastic example of hatching and cross-hatching and
I strongly recommend it as a sample set of art to look at for this topic.

Cross-hatching comes in a wide variety of looks and can also be used for backgrounds with these
types.
Other Types

There are really an infinite number of ways that you can use lines to hatch and cross-hatch. Here are
two other examples of possibilities: scribble and patch hatching. When it comes to patch hatching,
this is used a lot in manga as a background or texture fill. I personally have never seen scribble
hatching used, but I would suppose it depends on the texture you are aiming for. Wool, matted hair
on a wild beast, or maybe dirt and rocks and other naturally rough surfaces could be possible
examples of where this might be used. Be creative with it!
Hatching
Cross hatching is a derivative of a more basic concept called hatching.

With hatching you draw using parallel lines.

To adjust the tonal value of an area, you draw the lines closer or further apart. In the
hatched lines below you can see how the area appears darker than the hatched line
area above.

Definition of Cross Hatching

Two or more sets of parallel lines drawn at different angles to each other in order to
form patterns and tonal values.

Cross Hatching Basics

To get cross hatching you simply add one or more extra sets of hatching over the first at
a different angle.

As with hatching, the closer your hatches are to each other, the darker the tonal value
appears.

Take a look at the tonal value of the cross hatch above. Now compare it to the tonal
value of the cross hatching below:
The tonal value is roughly the same as the previous one. This time however the tonal
value has been built up with hatches in multiple directions. In fact if you look carefully
you will see that each set of hatches are further apart than the previous example.
This has allowed us to create the same tonal value, but a different texture. Keep this in
mind as you cross hatch.

Practical Cross Hatching

We are now going to do a practical exercise to learn how to create various tonal values
using cross hatching.

If you would like to follow along please download and print out the pdf worksheet below:

Download pdf Worksheet

The worksheet should look something like this once printed:

We will start in the row directly below the shaded tonal chart.

In the lightest, left hand block add cross hatching that is quite far apart like this:
To draw the lines I have used a 6B pencil with gentle pressure.

As you draw rotate the pencil in your fingers after every stroke or two. This keeps the tip
of the pencil sharp giving you nice crisp hatched lines.

Use the printed tonal chart in the bar above to compare tonal values.

If your tonal value is too light, add more hatches.

If your tonal value is too dark, use your eraser to erase the lines and start again using
wider parallel lines.

Now do the same in the block next to it. This time we need a darker tonal value, so use
hatches that are closer to each other as shown above.

To complete the central block use even closer hatches.

If this is not dark enough, add horizontal and vertical hatches in as well. (This is what I
have done in my central block)
The tonal value for the next block needs to be quite dark.

If you are using a pencil to cross hatch then you have an added tool in your arsenal.
You can press harder and softer to get lighter and darker strokes onto the paper.

I have used this added pressure to get the darker tonal value for this block. As you can
see the amount of hatching is pretty much the same as the previous, central block.

This just shows how handy the ability to add pressure is.

If you are hatching using a pen then unfortunately this technique is not available to you
so just keep adding more hatched lines in different directions until you have a matching
tonal value.

The final block is black so use a hard pressure as well as very close hatches to fill it in.
My hatches are so close they often overlap each other. In other words you are basically
colouring in this block.
As you do however, still do it in a hatching fashion by using the same directions as for
the previous blocks. As you can see the lines are still visible, retaining the cross
hatched effect despite the very dark tonal value.

How to Shade Using Cross Hatching

To shade the next block we will start with diagonal lines in this direction /

Start at the left hand side using wide parallel lines as per the block above it.

As you work your way to the right hand side gradually make your lines closer and closer
together in order to form a shading like this:

As you can see by the time you get to the right hand side you are colouring in.

This has already given us a beautiful continuous shading.

If this is the tonal value and shading you need then you can stop at this point.

Let’s continue by adding diagonal hatched shading in the opposite direction:

By adding the cross hatched shading we have a lot more texture as well as more
contrast between the left and right have sides.

Now we can add a set of vertical hatches in the same way:

The darker values are filling up nicely now.

We are going to add one more direction – horizontal lines.

As the actual shading is horizontal we can’t use the technique of parallel lines closer
and further apart.

As a result we will now use longer and shorter lines to complete the shading.

Here you can see I have marked the different lengths I have used to create the
horizontal shading:

In other words you start off with a few long lines going all the way across the block.

Then you add shorter lines going from the right hand side to the left.

Then a series of shorter and shorter lines.

The left hand side has less lines and the right hand side has a ton of lines giving us the
shading we need.

To further illustrate this here is the same block but with only the horzontal lines drawn
in:
You will often find yourself using this technique when cross hatching.
There is one more important concept that we need to look at in order to draw accurate
cross hatched drawings.
This concept is cross contour lines.

Cross Contour Lines

In real life when drawing we will seldom be drawing flat objects. Our objects will be
three dimensional like the mug above.
We need a way to draw this mug using parallel hatched lines.

If we use straight cross hatched lines as we have up to this point in the tutorial, we
would get a version of the mug on the paper, but we will find it difficult to fully convey
the roundness of the mug.

Here I have drawn the mug using only diagonal, vertical and horizontal cross hatching
so you can see:

It looks okay, but it feels as though something is missing.

This is where cross contour lines come in.

Cross contour lines are lines that follow or conform to the shape of the object.
For example if we were to draw a series of horizontal parallel lines around our mug,
they would look like this:

Notice how the lines are not straight, but curved to conform to the shape of the mug.

The same would happen to any lines we add to the mug, regardless of their direction.

When we draw our cross hatching we need to bend and bow the lines to follow the
contour of the object we are drawing.

When doing this our final drawing looks like this:

Compare this to the previous mug and you will agree that the drawing is a LOT better as
a result. It looks round and three dimensional now.

If you want to watch how I draw this mug, play the video at the top of the page.

You can use cross hatching to draw quick sketches when on holiday or for shading
practice in the studio. Cross hatched drawing are also great for testing out a
composition before starting a painting.

You can even use it to draw complete, stand alone artworks like this one:
 RTiful, get inspired to create
Free resources for artists

6 shading techniques for your

drawings
 DRAWING / INSPIRATION / SKETCHING / STEP BY STEP DEMONSTRATIONS / THE BIG
PICTURE COLLECTIVE ART PROJECT

6 shading techniques for your

drawings

Sandrine Pelissier 0 comments

Shading is the part that makes a drawing go from a flat contour drawing to a 3 dimensional
illusion.
There are many options for shading and each option will change the style of your drawing.
Here are some of the basic ones, you can try them on a simple sphere design as a fun
exercise.You might also like: We need your drawings ! Grab your markers

1.Cross hatching
With cross hatching you are drawing parallel lines, varying the direction of the lines and
layering them to obtain different intensity of shading.

I like to start by the lightest area and then add layers of cross hatching until I reach the
darkest area of the drawing.
Here is an example of a drawing of Gargoyles on Notre Dame de Paris’s roof.
You can also use cross hatching in your life drawings.
2.Hatching with parallel lines
Hatching with parallel lines is the same as cross hatching, except you are making all the
lines go in the same direction. It is a bit more time consuming than cross hatching but can
lead to interesting results.
3.Contour lines

Contour lines can be done in many different ways but basically the idea is to have the lines
follow the shape of what you are drawing. You can use contour lines for shading as in this
example:
or just to describe the shape as in this example:
Contour lines are working well on figure drawings. You also probably already seen many
drawings of hands with contour lines.
I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not
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4.Scribbles
Scribbling or scumbling is a fun way to shade a drawing and it goes fast!
Scumbling or scribble drawings shading works particularly well for portraits and still life.
You might also be interested in: Fun and easy : Scribble drawings
5.Strippling

Strippling is fun but it is very time consuming. I recommend you start by testing this
technique on a small size drawing until you get an idea of the time it takes 🙂
You can use different sizes of markers to make different sizes of dots when you are using
the stripling technique.
6.Zentangles and patterns

You can also use any pattern you would like for shading including zentangle types patterns.
Just evaluate how dark a pattern will be and fill the area corresponding to this shade with
your zentangle pattern.