How to Create Realistic Black and White Drawings

Hello everyone, today I suggest we take a look at black and white drawing. In this article, we'll explore the benefits of drawing in black and white and the various ways to do it.

Prepare your pencils, your paper or your tablet, and most importantly, your creativity! Let's get started!

BLACK AND WHITE DRAWING: HOW AND WHY?

Black and white drawing is very broad; in fact, contrary to what its name suggests, it consists of drawing solely by using shades of gray ranging from white to black. Therefore, it can apply to absolutely all techniques and all graphic styles.

We still find some techniques and graphic styles more than others. Unsurprisingly, the pencil is the king of black and white drawing, just like India ink, charcoal... (in short all the materials that are inherently shades of grey). As for graphic styles, there is a lot of black and white in manga and comics.

But then why draw in black and white?

There are many reasons why you might choose to draw in black and white, but here are the most common:

- Materials: If you only own graphite pencils you will only be able to draw in black and white.
- Line drawing: Some will only like to draw the line and do black and white inking work.
- Not having to use colors: For some, colors can be complex to understand, so it is more natural to turn to black and white drawing to add details and volume without using color.
- Speed: Drawing in black and white removes the color work and thus makes the drawing faster, which can be motivating.
- Study of values: Finally, drawing in black and white enables artists to learn and understand values (gray scale) in drawing, and thus to improve on many aspects, including depth, volume, light... Black and white drawing therefore serves as a preliminary study.

As you can see, drawing in black and white can have many advantages and suits all graphic styles, so let's look at some tips and techniques to help you with your black and white drawings.

BLACK AND WHITE DRAWING INKING

Line drawing, also called inking, is usually the step that comes after sketching. It involves going over your drawing using markers or ink to create a clean version of it. Most of the time, the line is done in black, and many artists, especially in the worlds of comics, manga, and tattoos, choose not to color their drawing after it has been inked.

In order to give the impression that the drawing is complete, the line must therefore be neat and convey visual interest. For this, we use thicks and thins. Thicks correspond to the very thick part of the lines and thins to the thinnest part. Together, they create dynamics in the line and add volume to the final drawing.

Here are some examples of drawings where thick and thin strokes play an important role in the final rendering of the image.

 

There are many ways to use thick and thin strokes; these often involve personal taste and graphic style, but for beginners, the simplest approach is to follow the basic rule: the thick stroke corresponds to a shadowed area, the thin stroke to a lighted area.

Here's a small example of how you can create strokes with thick and thin lines if you are a beginner:

1 - I'm drawing a sketch of a chess piece.
2 - I will choose the area from where the light is coming, here from the left.
3 - I start inking with the thinnest strokes, because it’s easier to thicken a line than to make it thinner. To make it easier, I start by doing only the areas of pure thin lines (without transition to thicker lines).
4 - I then proceed to make all the thin lines that will transition into thick strokes.
5 - I've just done all the pure fillings without making any transition for the moment.
6 - I've just done the transitions paying attention to make them as smooth as possible.

TEXTURED PATCHES

Textured patches are areas of lines, hatches or dots that add texture and volume to a drawing. They are particularly used in manga to create life in the backgrounds.

As you can see in the examples above, there are many ways to draw and use textured patches; they can be very fine and detailed as in the example on the right, or much more "coarse" as in the middle example.

Textured patches are ideal for adding volume quite simply; for this, it is necessary to ensure that the direction of the lines follows the volume of the object (as can be seen with the roofs and walls of the example on the left)

Textured patches are quite easy to create and enable you to (relatively) quickly add life and detail to your drawing. To succeed in making them, I recommend two things:

1 - Ensure that your textured patches start from the same invisible or visible line and always go in the same direction to maintain logic in the shape of the strokes and the smoothest lines possible.
2 - Make sure to be as consistent as possible in order to achieve a neat and harmonious result. It might take some time to achieve consistency, but it will also significantly improve the quality of your textured patches.

The denser you make the pattern you have chosen, the darker your textured patches will be, this will allow you to easily reproduce the different shades of gray.

Here are examples of patterns that are most commonly used (be careful with dots, they are very beautiful but take a long time to make):

 

Here is how you can use textured patches in your drawings:

1 - I will go back to the chess piece that we inked just before. In your head (or with a small sketch on the side if you find it easier) you will separate different areas that correspond to the different shading: here, there are 3: white for the pure white areas, light pink for the areas with light shading, and dark pink for the areas with more shading.
2 - Next, you will start drawing your textured patches, making sure to follow the volume of the drawing well. To make it easier, I start with the "straight" areas by creating crosshatch patches with lines.
3 - I then repeat the operation on the rounded areas by making crosshatches that follow the curve of the chess piece. This will enhance its volume.
4 - I am now creating the shaded area using grid hatching while being careful to follow the volumes as before.
To add a bit more contrast, I have created more density on the patterns of the patches.

REALISTIC PENCIL DRAWINGS

When choosing to draw in black and white, for a realistic drawing the focus needs to be on three main aspects: light, volume and texture. As you can see from the examples below, a realistic black and white drawing can be extremely detailed and rich in information even though there are no colors. Thus, you won't need to worry about choosing the right hues, but only the right shades of gray.

To create a realistic drawing, you obviously need a solid foundation in drawing. If you feel that you have gaps, I recommend you check out our training on the basics of drawing: https://dessindigo.com/les-bases-du-dessin. The essential key will always be time, as this kind of drawing requires a lot of patience and precision.

 

To achieve nuances in your grayscale, I recommend having a range with several graphite pencils of different grades (2H, HB, 2B...). Then you will need to gradually work on your gray gradients, that is, manage to make smooth transitions between your different pencils. For this, I suggest adjusting the pressure on your pencils. As soon as you feel the need to press harder to achieve a darker shade, switch to a slightly softer pencil.

 

When you are starting out, the best way to help you with shading would be to use a reference.

Here's how I then proceed to create a realistic black and white drawing.

1 - I'm doing a pretty clean sketch.
2 - I check the reference or I visualize the different areas of shadow and light that I will have (here I use the same shading principle that we saw earlier) 3 - I then start to lay down the lightest grays using a fairly dry pencil (2 or 4H).
4 - I start by applying most of the basic shadows with an HB pencil, being careful to leave areas of white to show the light.
5 - Gradually, I increase the levels of gray to create more shadow by following the volumes of the room.
6 - I continue to layer the grays to add more contrast.

By slowly building up your grays and leaving areas of white, it may take a bit longer to visualize, but you will ultimately be more accurate in your rendering.

 

This concludes this article on black and white drawing. As you have seen, black and white drawing is suitable for all techniques and styles, and it also enables you to focus on important aspects (such as volume, light, or texture) without worrying about colors. I hope you enjoyed this article! 😊

Writer and illustrator: Chloé Pouteau