WIP (the sail)

Currently working on the sail of my little boat. 

I’ve decided during the course of this drawing to give tutorials on basic graphite drawing. If you have children or if you’re an aunt, uncle, sibling, or grandparent, you have the power to change the course of a child’s world for the better, and quite possibly your own. After all, the first 3D surgical grid assisting invasive surgery was invented by an artist, not an engineer, not a doctor, but an artist.

BASICS:

One outline pencil

One shading pencil

One eraser 

One pencil sharpener 

One white drawing tablet 

These five items, along with dedication, are all you need in the beginning.

Anything else you may need you probably already own as common household items, like cotton balls, Qtips, nail file, etc. We’ll get into that later.

I draw large scale drawings, 18x24 and bigger, so my outline pencil is very light. It’s easier to draw lines darker rather than erase. I use a 6H pencil. It’s very light. Most graphite artists begin drawing using an HB or B pencil. 

Right now all we’re doing is building a relationship with you and your pencil. This may sound strange but once you start drawing you’ll understand. For a shading pencil start with a 2B graphite pencil. The higher the number on the pencil the darker the graphite. The darkest graphite pencil (I’ve seen and use regularly) is an 8B pencil designed by a German company. You don’t need that now, or maybe ever.

For now just get an HB or B for outline, and a 2B pencil to practice shading. These are professional drawing pencils. 

Use a metal pencil sharpener. They last forever.

I use kneaded rubber erasers. 

Art teachers will tell you to start with Art Gum erasers, but I don’t like using those. They smear your drawing when you try to erase something, crumble and easily fall apart. I use Kneaded Rubber erasers.

Kneaded rubber erasers are not only self cleaning when you stretch and roll them out like bread dough, but they’re soft and can be reshaped, pulled apart into smaller separate erasers, and can be rolled back together again into one eraser, similar to Silly Putty. You’ll see. 

As for a drawing tablet, get any cheap white paper tablet. Eventually you’ll want to use a professional drawing tablet specifically designed for graphite, but right now any cheap white or beige drawing tablet will do. 

LESSON 1

Everything you draw will use basic geometry. Everything begins with a square, a circle, oval, round, a rectangle, etc. Practice drawing shapes. Just shapes. Look around the room. Draw the shape, just the shape of the items in the room. Is your TV square or rectangle? Do you have vertical blinds? Horizontal blinds? Do you see candles? Are they tall, short, round, square? Just draw the shape. Never mind detail for now. And always keep your pencil sharp.

Then

With your shading 2B pencil practice shading in each shape with various pressures on pencil using straight lines only. L

Lift your pencil after each line. This is called hatching. If you want to give your shape some depth and texture then make another series of lines cross-crossing the first. This is called cross-hatching. Lift your pencil after each line. Be as accurate as you can staying in the lines. Practice different pressures on the pencil without breaking your graphite tip. 

And there’s your homework. Practice practice practice!