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[email protected] 10 Dec 2019

PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES Drawing Your Way

[email protected] 10 Dec 2019

PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

This PDF drawing resource is written and created for Drawing Your Way by Charlotte Brown of Lotti Brown Designs and Drawing Your Way. LottiBrownDesigns.com is where I share my own art plus inspiration and resources to encourage and teach you to draw with confidence and creativity. My own art is created from pen drawings which I scan into the computer and import into Adobe Illustrator to create the final artwork digitally. I love to draw flowers, nature, wildlife and animals. Drawing Your Way is my online library of drawing courses and resources which teach you drawing skills with the freedom to do creativity your own way.

Drawing Your Way Learn to draw with the freedom to do creativity your own way Not just how to draw… but how to be an artist, too! Because art should be fun… Because art should be personal… Because art should be creative… Because art isn’t about fancy techniques… Because your way of drawing is just as good as anyone else’s...!

© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved. © 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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[email protected] 10 Dec 2019

PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

In this PDF we’ll cover: • Pencil drawing techniques

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© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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[email protected] 10 Dec 2019

PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

Essential Pencil Drawing Techniques Learn pencil drawing techniques and ideas to improve your drawing skills… The graphite pencil is our basic drawing tool, so it’s well worth learning how to draw well with pencil. Whether you prefer to just draw with pencil for sketches and rough outlines, or if you love to create your finished artwork completely in pencil, there are different pencil drawing techniques that can help you.

Choose Your Pencil First, make sure that you’ve got the right pencil for the job! Pencils come in a wide selection of grades, ranging from very hard (9H) to very soft (9B). There is more about understanding pencil grades in my ‘Get Ready for Drawing’ PDF here… Pencils H, HB, and B sit right in the middle of the scale. They are reasonably good for anything from writing, drawing outlines and light shading. The harder pencils: •

give a lighter grey colour on your page

•

are great for light sketches and outlines, fine lines, and precise technical drawings

Don’t press too hard with them, else you’ll scour your page surface. •

Use a hard eraser with hard pencils

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Use smooth papers with hard pencils

The softer pencils: •

give a much darker grey colour

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give a thicker, softer line

They’re best for softer, sketchier drawings with lots of shading. © 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES •

Use a soft, kneadable eraser with soft pencils

•

Use textured papers with soft pencils

A selection of soft B-grade pencils

© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

When we first start to learn pencil drawing techniques, we tend to pick up one pencil and draw our whole drawing through with that same pencil. Actually, it’s far more effective and you get a more attractive and interesting drawing if you get used to using a range of different pencils within the one drawing. If you want to roughly sketch in outlines before you start your drawing ‘proper’, it’s a good idea to use a really light, hard pencil, such as H or 2H. Press really lightly, though, so that you don’t press into the surface of your paper and mark it. It should be easy to erase if you press very softly, too.

© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

The main outlines of your drawing could be done in a softer pencil, such as a B or 2B. This should have a nice soft feel to it, physically, as the pencil runs across the surface of the paper - to make your drawing feel pleasant to do. And it will give you a good strong outline for your drawing that you can work further with. Also look out for special ‘sketching’ pencils which tend to have a softer consistency than the usual drawing or ‘graphic’ pencils. They feel softer to use and move nicely over your paper. Try Derwent Sketching Pencils for this. Keep your pencil nicely sharpened for nice sharp lines and even shading – and particularly to avoid scratching your paper with the wooden casing of the pencil as the nib blunts.

Pencil Drawing Techniques Once you’ve got the outlines in place, this is when your selection of pencil and your pencil drawing techniques are most important. How you hold your pencil is important: •

A tight grip, close to the point, gives a tight, controlled drawing line. This is best for accurate, technical-style drawing and fine detail.

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A looser grip, much further back on your pencil, gives a looser, sketchier drawing line that’s great for larger drawings and personal, expressive drawing styles.

If you drew everything with the same pencil, it’s likely that the whole drawing would appear in the same (or very, very similar) tones of grey. This can be a bit flat and bland to look at and doesn’t make for an interesting or dynamic drawing. One way we can get around this is by choosing our mark-making techniques very carefully so that the marks we make with our pencil are close together (for darker areas) or further apart (for lighter areas). This is a similar technique to how artists draw with pens, so it’s definitely possible to get a nice range of tones (lights and darks) within the one drawing using a pencil in this same way. © 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

But one of the big advantages of choosing to draw with a pencil (rather than a pen) is that you get to play with shading techniques.

While using the point of any pencil will give you a firm, fine line, by using the pencil more on its side, you can make nice shaded areas for your drawing. © 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES •

The lighter (harder) pencils (H-grade) give light-grey shading.

•

The darker (softer) pencils (B-grade) give a darker, softer and more textured shading.

Looking at light and dark in your drawing, and creating light and dark areas with your shading, is really important for an interesting and accurate drawing. You can find out more about that here… You can experiment with how you shade, as well, using the pencil in a more upright position and creating neat, smooth shading with small strokes, close together, all in the same direction… Or looser shading with the pencil almost flat (horizontal) and larger strokes for looser, expressive, and atmospheric drawing styles. You can even take your pencil drawing techniques further and smudge and smooth your shading with your finger, a cotton-wool ball, or a special blending stump to get softer, smokier effects for your drawing. The darker (softer) B-grade pencils are best suited for this pencil drawing technique as they smudge and smear more easily… Be warned when you’re drawing using soft B-grade pencils – and use a piece of scrap paper or paper towel to protect your drawing from the smudging of your hand on the page. •

You can also try to work from the top-left corner of your drawing, downwards and outward, if you’re right-handed…

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Or from the top-right corner if you’re left-handed

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This will avoid your hand smudging over the top of the bit of your drawing that you’ve just done (no-one wants that)!

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© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

Drawing to show the really soft, textured shading you can get when using the softer b-pencils (4b-9b). This is smudged using the blending stumps you can see in the picture - just rub over your pencil drawing with the point of the stump, quite hard. You can also use the tips of the pencil to get dark hard outlines (…best drawn in after you smudge!)

© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

If you like the softer, smudgier techniques, you can experiment with graphite sticks and blocks, and graphite powder. Graphite is the same substance that is in the lead of pencils (not lead at all these days). You can make your own graphite powder by (carefully) taking a knife to a graphite block and scraping gently away to create a powder. This can be sprinkled and/or smeared and smudged onto your paper with a finger or cotton wall ball.

Special and Unusual Pencil Drawing Techniques Adding Water

Perhaps one of the most exciting pencil drawing techniques is to use water.

© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

Water can be used as: •

Added to graphite powder to make a soft-grey wash that gives a beautifully smooth, watercolour effect to your drawing (use a brush to apply). o

Add more or less powder to your water (or water to your powder) to create a lighter or darker tone of grey for your wash.

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Used over the top of shaded areas, with a brush, to create a wash effect (not all pencils are water-soluble although pure graphite is, so check before you try this effect or buy a pencil with the intention of trying this).

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Special water-soluble sketching pencils designed to be used with water in a variety of ways. You can often use these: o

On wet surfaces

o

Dry and then add water with a brush

© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

Try Derwent’s Sketching Pencils if you like the look of this effect…

Extra Dark Derwent’s Onyx pencils are the blackest pencil tone (even darker than the darkest B-grade pencil, 9B) so are great for really dark shaded areas. They also have a fine drawing point so are brilliant for fine/dark detailed line drawings too – in a way that the softer 8/9B pencils aren’t.

Adding Colour Coloured pencils Coloured pencils are a beautiful way to add colour to your pencil drawing. These can be used dry (as standard) with the same drawing and shading techniques as a normal pencil - or as a special water-soluble coloured pencil for a watercolour-type effect, as you prefer. I have a separate PDF all about drawing with coloured pencils if you like this idea – check out all my Drawing Resources here…

Tinted pencils Also look out for a new personal favourite of mine – tinted graphite pencils. These are in-between a normal graphite pencil and a coloured pencil – a bit of grey and a bit of colour - so they’d be perfect for adding a bit of colour to a mainly grey pencil drawing…

© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

DRAWING WITH TINTED GRAPHITE PENCILS (COLOUR TINT BY SPECTRUM NOIR)

© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

If you add water, the colour comes more to the fore with a soft, ‘painted’ watercolour-like effect…

Adding water to the tinted graphite pencil drawing gives a painted water-colour effect and brighter colours Try Derwent’s ‘Graphitint’ or Spectrum Noir’s ‘Colour Tint’ pencils. © 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

Sepia Tones If you’d like to add subtle sepia tones to your drawing (tones of brown), look out for special conte-type drawing pencils which come in a range of black/white/brown/tan/sepia tones. These are very popular to add a soft warmth to pencil drawings (like the oldfashioned sepia photos or historic ‘sanguine’ (red chalk) drawings.

© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

Traditional ‘three colours’ drawing methods used black, sepia (brown/red chalk), and white for dark, mid and light tones (often on a mid-toned buff or grey paper)… These sepia-toned conte drawing pencils help you to achieve this warm effect in your drawing that’s perfect for drawings where the grey tones of pure graphite seem a little cold or harsh – such as portraits of people or animals, and landscapes. The sepia effect is much warmer and more welcoming, softer, or attractive.

The pencils are soft to use and are best for shading effects and expressive styles (rather than fine detail). Try Derwent Drawing Pencils if you like this idea. © 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

Personal Drawing Style The way that you choose to use these pencil drawing techniques will make up your own personal drawing style. Please remember that there is no official or ‘proper’ way of using these pencil drawing techniques… So if there’s something that feels good to you and you like the end result, then use it, experiment some more with it – and make that technique your own! If you’re struggling to find your own personal style with your drawing, try holding your pencil further back and more loosely in your hand, to make a more relaxed and sketchy drawing. Also look at how you make your mark. Your mark-making can be a very individual and personal way of distinguishing your drawings as yours in your own personal style. Art isn’t about making perfect drawings (that would be a technical drawing) but about putting your own personal expression in… Try: •

opening up to your creative side

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connecting with your emotions when you draw

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finding what’s meaningful to you

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making it personal and walking your own path on your artistic journey

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experimenting with what you like and working things out in your sketchbook

Go to the main Drawing Resources page for all the drawing topics. You might also enjoy my full online drawing course, the ‘Start Drawing Your Way Essential Drawing Skills Course’.

© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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PENCIL DRAWING TECHNIQUES

Want more help with your drawing? If you've enjoyed the free drawing resources in this PDF but want more drawing help and practical drawing exercises to develop the skills, techniques and creativity you need, please join me for my Essential Drawing Skills course. If this sounds good, find out all about it here...

© 2019 Charlotte Brown of LottiBrownDesigns.com and DrawingYourWay.com. All rights reserved.

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