How to shade off of a black line???

I love the look when there is shading or blending from an outline. I was wondering how to pull this effect off, do you use a brush or a sponge??

Someone told me once to keep a sponge with black on it dry and then drag off the line with that while the new paint was still wet. Thus creating the shading and not pulling all the color away. Does that make sense?

once you draw the line, don't bother to add water or more paint to your brush, just go back with it and drag the wet line outwards with little strokes.

You need to do it while the paint is still kinda wet.. it allows for easier drag blending.

You can do it with either.

Thanks guys, that does make sense, i think i am going to try the dry black sponge method, i was having trouble with the color pulling away. when i get a chance i will upload a pic so you can see how it turned out. Thanks again

I use both methods depending on the situation. For large designs, the sponge is definitely much faster than trying to drag blend with a brush.
You can also achieve different looks depending on which method you use. I suggest trying it both ways and seeing which is more comfortable and natural for you. Then try different variations of both techniques so you can see the different effects you can come up with with each method. You never know when a certain visual effect may come in handy, so it is good to arm yourself with the knowledge of how to achieve many different effects so you are prepared for any design you need to do.
Also, remember, if you feel you are pulling away too much of your line, you can always go back over your line to "crisp" it up after your blending is done.

I use a dry clean chisel brush and drag it out in small strokes from the line you created