How to shade your art

Surprisingly, a while ago I didn't know how to properly shade. But I learned very quickly. It just takes a little practice.
First of all, for practice I drew spheres. It made it easier for me to learn because I had the shadow on the sphere as well as the drop shadow.



Step 1: Light

The most important part of shading is knowing where the light is hitting the object. That way it looks more realistic. If you have shadows everywhere, it isn't going to make very much sense. So pick a direction and do the shadows on the opposite side.

Step 2: Shadow

Now that you have light, it's time to add darkness. Start out by lightly coloring the side of the object that you want to be shadowed with your pencil(or other tool). Then start to darken it up by layering the color. Usually I go darkest to lightest. Now you can add the drop shadow. Follow to steps above to shade the ground on the darker side.

Step 3: Blend

To me, this part is the easiest. If the object is large enough, take your finger and lightly rub on the place that you applied your pencil shading. If you are using colored pencil, use a lighter pencil crayon to make a nice transition between colors(Use the same technique for markers and other art supplies). For the pencil, you want the colors to trasition nicely but not be over blended. If the object is smaller, you can always get a shading tool, or you can still use your finger and erase any mistakes.
Drop shadows are under the object. To blend, use the tricks above, and blend out from wherever it stops. Erase any mistakes that you make.

After this you can basically do whatever you like with it. Just have fun.