Hatching is a technique used by artists to create tonal or shading effects in their drawings. Cross hatching and contour hatching are two of the 6 basic hatching techniques. Cross hatching uses fine parallel lines drawn closely together to create the illusion of shade or texture in a drawing. After laying down one pass of hatch marks, another set of hatch marks are drawn on top, usually in a perpendicular or near-perpendicular direction to the first set. While in contour hatching there is only one set of hatch marks, and these are lines follow the contours of the subject.