A Brush With Art.pdf

Drawing with pencilYour pencil is, of course, your most importantpiece of equipment for drawing and, like brushesand colours, you'll find plenty of different ones tochoose from. Don't be confused, though - forgeneral sketching purposes you only need two.A good artist's drawing pencil comes in 13degrees of lead. HB, one of the two pencils I use, isright in the middle of the scale. On the H side, theleads become harder and lighter as they reach thetop of the scale, i.e. H, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H and 6H(the hardest); and on the B side the leads becomesofter and darker, i.e. B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B and 6B (thesoftest). For my second pencil, Ifind 2B is ideal.Start with an HB pencil and a 2B pencil - they areall you need for successful drawing. But if youwant to experiment with other grades of pencillater, that's fine too.The next golden rule for drawing is always tohave your pencils sharpened correctly. Let's getstraight to the point - they should never look likethe first pencil in the picture below. You won't feelany artistic flair if you use a pencil like that! Makesure your pencil always has a long, tapering pointlike the pencil in the centre of the picture. Thismeans that you can use either the point or the sideof the lead for shading. When you sharpen yourpencil, use a sharp knife to cut off controlled andpositive slices, giving a long taper to the lead.On the opposite page I have shown you thethree most important ways of holding your pencilfor drawing. The top picture shows what Icall theshort drawing position. This gives you maximumcontrol over your drawing and you hold yourpencil in exactly the same way as you would a penfor writing. For this, as with painting vertical orhorizontal lines with your brush, move onlyyour fingers for short lines, your whole arm forlong lines.The long drawing position shown in the middlepicture allows a freer and more flowing movementand the versatility you need to work over largeareas. For this you must hold the pencil at least5 cm (2 in) from the point.The bottom picture shows the flat drawingposition. This is a totally different way of holdingyour pencil, which is almost flat on the paper,held off by your thumb and finger. Use thismethod to work fast, free, broad strokes, using thelong edge of the lead to give large shaded areas.There are, of course, infinite versions of thehave shown you. Usethree different positions Ithem as a base, learning how to draw with yourpencil and make it work for you. Practisewhenever you can. Doodle - do anything! Don'tworry about drawing, just get used to the penciland what you can make it create on paper.Left: The wrong and right waysto sharpen your pencilRight: Holding your pencil. Theshort drawing position gives youmost control (top); the longdrawing position gives freedomto your strokes (centre); theflat drawing position allowsmaximum freedom ofmovement (bottom)40