Drawing

Drawing is an important skill for all artists to have. It is very helpful for you to plan a painting, a sculpture, or some other artistic creation on paper before you decide to make it. Drawing is a skill that can be taught. Really! Anyone CAN learn to draw. But before you decide you are not a good drawer, forget about just using one pencil or pen and try using the tools that professional and serious amateur drawers use and then see how your drawings are. Drawing with a charcoal pencil is much different than graphite pencils and many times faster when it comes to shading. Also you should know that different surfaces will give you diverse results using certain mediums. Different surfaces have different amounts of "tooth" which is what alters the look of a drawing. Tooth is the amount of texture that is on a surface; the less the tooth, the smoother the surface is and vice versa. It's very beneficial to you to buy a drawing kit and experiment with the mediums and different surfaces. You should make sure to be educated on the Design Basics before you move on to using mediums like drawing, painting, sculpting, and so on. You will find that these basics really help you to be a better artist.It is important to invest in the proper tools to make the most of your drawing experience. I have included a list of typical supplies below. This list is not all encompassing and you may find or know of different tools or mediums. If you have a tool or drawing medium that isn't included here or know of a great tutorial video please share it in the comment section below.

Key Terms

You can find most term definitions here: www.artlex.com.

Medium
Tooth
Blending
Point Perspective
Depth
Shadowing
Light source/direction
Proportion
Foreshortening
Hatching
Cross hatching
Subtractive drawing
Pencil types
- H - Hard
- B - Blackness
- # - level of hardness (the higher the number, the higher level of hardness)

Supplies

Ruler
Drawing surface - paper, vellum, cardboard, bristol board, canvas, wood, etc.
Drawing medium - Graphite pencil, charcoal, india ink, pen, oil or chalk pastels, etc.)
Pencil sharpener
Blending tool also known as a Tortelon
Erasers - (*Pink Pearl rubber erasers that are typically used in school are NOT recommended - see why below)
- White Plastic or Vinyl eraser
- Eraser stick (a plastic eraser inside a pen like tool - see video 2 below for visual)
- Kneaded eraser
- Gum eraser
Compass
Proportional divider (also called a scale divider - see video 1 below)
Fixatif - Spray used to seal and protect finished drawings (and paintings) to prevent smudging or altering the drawing's integrity.

Resources & Links

Here are some assorted tutorials on drawing. I hope you find them helpful. Enjoy!

The Anti-University Art University - This YouTube site has 52 drawing tutorial videos
Erasers - Please see my notes below on which eraser should you use and important things you should know about them.
Books - I'm not endorsing Betty Edwards per se but these are books that I am personally familiar with and know they are good books to teach you to draw or draw better.
- Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - by Betty Edwards
- Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Workbook - by Betty Edwards
- Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Starter Kit - by Betty Edwards (*this is both the book and the workbook in a combo pack)
- Drawing on the Artist Within - by Betty Edwards

Which eraser should you use?

*Pink Pearl rubber erasers that are typically used in school are NOT recommended in drawing because it will smudge and is likely not to erase completely which can ruin your drawing.

White Plastic or Vinyl eraser - White plastic or vinyl erasers (which are the same thing) are good to use with just about any drawing medium and on just about any kind of drawing surface. It is gentle on surfaces and you do not need to be aggressive when erasing with it.
Eraser stick (see video 2 for visual) - Basically it is the same as above, just in a smaller form.
Kneaded eraser - This eraser is best for erasing charcoal but can be used just as well for graphite. You can erase like normal or pat it on certain areas to lift away little bits of charcoal.
- *Note - if you hold your needed eraser for long periods of time or knead it a lot at one sitting then the material will warm up and become more like the consistency of gum. This makes it much harder to work with. Sometimes it's helpful to have a couple of kneaded erasers during your drawing session to avoid this dilemma.
Gum eraser- The gum eraser is a very gentle eraser and is good to use on most types of mediums but it tends to crumble so be gentle with this type of eraser to avoid maximum loss. This eraser is ideal for erasing marks from vellum and light/delicate surfaces.

References

Photo credit: morguefile.com

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