Drawing with a Pencil
The pencil, or graphite pencil, is generally the first tool used to learn how to draw. Favored by beginners, it can nevertheless be used to create complete illustrations. In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a complete drawing with the pencil.
THE MATERIAL FOR DRAWING
Since we will only be drawing in the traditional way in this exercise, some materials are required. Although everything can be done with a standard pencil and an eraser, I still recommend opting for a hard pencil for sketches such as a 3H, a medium pencil for final lines such as an HB and a soft pencil for volumes such as a 3B. You can also choose harder or softer pencils depending on your habits or the depth of blacks you want.
For erasers, a white rubber for deleting and correcting lines will be more than sufficient. You can also use a fine eraser or a kneaded eraser to erase details or soften areas.
Finally, and as an option, you can equip yourself with a stump (aka tortillons) to create gradients or blur certain areas.
Choosing paper is easier. You can draw just fine on regular 80g paper or on thicker paper. Try to choose textured papers to give your drawing some texture.
DRAWING A PENCIL SKETCH
Pencil drawing always begins with a sketch. Since you are already working on the final support, the sketch must be thin and barely visible. This will make it easier to erase or hide it.
At this stage, you also define your construction lines. You can obviously use as many as you want, but don't hesitate to erase gradually to keep only the essential lines for your final drawing. If you have one, this is the part where you draw with a dry pencil.
THE TRANSITION TO CLEANING
Once you have completed the sketch, you can proceed to cleaning it up. First, lightly erase the sketch using the kneaded eraser or being careful not to press too hard with the white eraser. It should be barely visible, but clear enough to go over the important elements later.
As for me, I like to use an HB pencil for this step. I trace my lines without pressing too hard and leave the construction lines that indicate my volumes as they are.
GIVING VOLUME TO THE DRAWING
The pencil drawing is inherently black and white, so all volume will be given in greyscale. I first cover the mid-tones with an HB pencil and make sure to leave the brightest parts white. This step can be a bit time-consuming, but take your time! This way you will get nice, even, flat colours.
From here, I can start to shade my drawing. It's very easy to create pencil gradients by varying the pressure I apply. This will be perfect for the curved elements of my drawing. I can also add some texture through hatching, cross-hatching, or other patterns.
I can darken my shadows using a softer pencil, like my 3B for example. I do it on the same principle as the previous step. Since the pencil is softer, I recommen putting a sheet under your hand: it will avoid smudging the drawing as you shade the pencil!
I will have to restore the light on some surfaces. To do this, I use the eraser to remove excess graphite and recover the whites of the paper. It is difficult to obtain such a clean white as on a surface that has not held the graphite, so I try to preserve as much white as possible for the brightest parts.
Now that the method is understood, you can repeat the previous steps to add more volume to your drawing. You can soften certain areas to blend them or make them more uniform using a stump or a paper tortillon, but avoid using your finger: you will grease the paper and it will be more difficult to spread graphite on it afterwards.
Do not hesitate to cover the background with pencil if you want the brightest areas to stand out even more!
The drawing is now finished! If you want to keep it, you will need to lacquer it with a fixative to prevent the graphite from dispersing when you handle it.
CONCLUSION
Pencil drawing is an art that is easy to learn but difficult to master. Work on shading, play with textures and experiment with new tools such as the electric eraser to remove more pencil in certain areas or graphite powder to cover areas more quickly.
Written and illustrated by Louis Grieves.