Simple Pencil Drawing Techniques
65When I was in school as a kid, my friends would ask me how I was able to draw. As it turned out, I didn't know. I honestly never considered myself to be an artist. I just liked to draw. I suppose it was a gift from God passed down to me by my mother. I had no real formal training. Some of the techniques my teachers would impart just seemed to be intuitive. If you don't draw at all, hopefully the information I have for you will be of some use.
The first thing I do when I have a subject that I want to draw, is to do a light sketch of the composition. Whether it is a portrait, building, landscape etc. this is generally the same approach I use each time. This helps tremendously when you are trying to get the proportions correct. Plus if you need to make changes, you don't have a lot of heavy erasing. To aid with getting correct proportions I try to use one object in the piece as a focal point. I then I use it almost as a mental ruler to scale everything else.
When I've done this I check my perspective. This is very important particularly if you are doing a landscape, or dealing with architecture. Objects in the foreground will appear much larger than ones further in the distance. It may look a little weird until you start adding more detail and shading. You also have to remember paralell lines will appear to be moving towards each other as you go into the distance.
Next, I take into account the lighting. You must be mindful of the direction the light is comming from to ensure objects have the proper highlights and accents. This is actually easier on surfaces that tend to be highly reflective such as the eye, glass, metal and soforth.
Once I do that, I start shading. I think two of the most important things to keep in mind when you are shading is the highlighted areas, and whether you are left or right handed. I try to map out the lighter areas of shading first. It is much easier to go back and make an area darker if needed than to try to lighten it when you've discovered it is too dark. In fact in some cases you may find you are not be able to. I happen to be left handed so when I start shading I typically work from the right of the paper to the left. This cuts down on smearing and smudging of the graphite with my hand.
Lastly, I would like to talk about pencil strokes. I don't claim to be an expert on this, but you should be able to incorporate this in your drawings. You can use the pencil to create lines thick or thin depending on the pressure you use. You can shade areas by using straight lines called hatching. Cross-hatching is achieved when these lines intersect. The angles of intersecting vary and the distance between them will be one of the factors that determine the amount of shading achieved. My favorite techniques are Smudging which you can do with your finger, a Conte crayon, or even a Q-tip to get effects like clouds, or fabric etc.,and short choppy strokes to create hair or feathers. Whatever you try just have fun experimenting. There are plenty of books, videos, and tutorials to help you on your way.
P.S. You will find pencils range from 9H to 9B. H will be your hardest points and produce a very light line. B is the softest and will produce a very dark line. Heavy paper like 100 lb has less tooth and is very good for fine detailed drawings lower weights are good for drawings where a lot of graphite is used.
