how do i make an object in my drawing look as though there's a glare on the side or top with a pencil?

You need to visualize which parts of the surface would have the correct orientation in order to reflect light directly into the observers (artists) eyes, …..

then leave those unshaded (so as to leave a bright white surface) whilst all other surfaces, with differing orientations, are shaded much darker.

The greater the difference in shade, between shaded and unshaded, the greater will be the impression of “glare”.

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Best wishes - Majikthise.

well i mean like how do i fade it out? should i go back and forth or in circles? i use my finger to shade…is that wrong? lol ive been drawing for a while. but ive started getting a bit more detailed and interested. paying attention to a lot of stuff i never did before lol

Look at some of the work of the masters of light and shade (e.g. Caravaggio).

In this still life image, the light source would have been been near the left shoulder of the artist (look at the direction of the shadows) The glare points appear as white regions that lack detail, and the glare points will be on surfaces parallel to a mirror that would have reflected the light directly into the artists eyes. Those are the surfaces that Caravaggio left predominantly white, while surfaces almost at the reflective angle would have used very pale hues (equivalent to very light shading with a pencil).

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M.

Note the glare points on this Albrecht Dürer Skull. They are the only regions left totally unshaded and lacking detail thus showing the full brilliance of the primed surface medium, in stark contrast to the much darker areas that show the surrounding detail.

everything you said helped! thank you so much!!!

You are welcome.

well that all depends… :) there r a million ways… if u r going fo realism? then simply read n e bookon realism and it is step by step… u do the same thing every time… but if r like me n want ur art to b your own style ten that is where the million diff ways come in… if u FB u can check out a lot of my drawings… its just my sketch pad from a few yrsago but it has realism to prison art. to tattoos… u should b able o get a good idea… i would love to talk more about it…. just add me