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Introduction to Drawing drawspace module 1.1 Brenda Hoddinott

www.drawspace.com 89 Pages ISBN: 978-1-927365-99-1 Includes 15 resources and 5 activities This curriculum is taught in Drawspace’s interactive classrooms and can be licensed for education purposes in digital format at www.drawspace.com. Copyright © 2012 Brenda Hoddinott ([email protected]) and Jeff Baur ([email protected]) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing. Curriculum, illustrations, and intellectual property are intended for educational purposes only and may not be sold in any form or by any means. This publication contains the opinions and ideas of the author, Brenda Hoddinott, and it is intended to provide helpful and informative material on all aspects of the subject matter. Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing disclaim any responsibility for any liability, damages, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, resulting from the use or misuse of information and applications of any of the contents of this book.

Publisher: Drawspace Publishing, Halifax, NS, Canada Illustrations, curriculum, and book layout: Brenda Hoddinott Cover design: Jeff Baur Editor: Stephanie Halldorson

Copyright © 2012 Drawspace Publishing and Brenda Hoddinott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing.

I

Contents **************************************************************************** *Activity

Introduction........................................................................................................IV Information about Drawspace Curriculum and its various sidebars, as well as a suggestion for getting the best outcomes with the resources and activities in this book

About Drawspace Curriculum ..............................................................................................................................IV Sizing up the Sidebars ..........................................................................................................................................V How to Use this Book ...........................................................................................................................................V

Glossary Of Art Terms ........................................................................................1 1.1.R1 Definitions of many of the art-related terms used in the resources and activities of Drawspace Curriculum Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 10.5, Reading Ease 51.2

Traveling Back in Time with Graphite .............................................................17 1.1.R2 A few fun tidbits of information about the history of graphite Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 9.5, Reading Ease 56.5

How the “Lead” Pencil Got its Name ..................................................................................................................17 The Link Between Graphite and Sheep ...............................................................................................................19

Examining Graphite and Grades ......................................................................21 1.1.R3 Understanding the differences between H and B grades of graphite Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 6.3, Reading Ease 74.9

Hard is Light ..........................................................................................................................................................22 Soft is Black ...........................................................................................................................................................22

Seeing Grades in Drawings ..............................................................................24 1.1.R4 Graphite drawings demonstrate the visual qualities of H and B grades of pencils Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 9.8, Reading Ease 63

Picking out Graphite Pencils ............................................................................28 1.1.R5 How to select the right graphite pencils for learning how to draw Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 8.9, Reading Ease 57.4

Wood-encased Pencils .........................................................................................................................................29 Mechanical Pencils ...............................................................................................................................................30 Woodless pencils ..................................................................................................................................................31

*Play With Five Grades of Graphite ..................................................................32 1.1.A2 Use the base values of five different grades of pencils to add shading to nine simple line drawings Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 8.0, Reading Ease 66.7

Supplies: drawing paper, 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B grades of pencils, and a pencil sharpener


II Sketchbooks and Drawing Papers ....................................................................35 1.1.R6 Choosing the right size, quality, and weight of drawing paper Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 8.9, Reading Ease 60.1

Sketchbooks Versus Individual Sheets ..............................................................................................................36 Deciding on a Paper Size .....................................................................................................................................37 Weighing in on Paper.............................................................................................................................................37

*Make a Storage Portfolio ................................................................................39 1.1.A1 Make a portfolio folder for the storage and preservation of drawing papers and two-dimensional artworks Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 6.3, Reading Ease 72.2

Supplies: acid-free cardboard or matboard; roll of wide tape; strong, sharp utility knife; and a straight edge or long ruler Option 1: Using One Large Sheet of Board ........................................................................................................40 Option 2: Using Two Smaller Sheets of Board ...................................................................................................42

Check Up on the Tooth of Papers ....................................................................44 1.1.R7 How a paper’s tooth affects the appearance of graphite drawings Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 9.6, Reading Ease 58.2

The Surface of a Smooth Tooth ...........................................................................................................................45 Big Smile for a Medium Tooth ..............................................................................................................................46 Textures on a Rough Tooth....................................................................................................................................48

Tools for Sharpening and Erasing ...................................................................50 1.1.R8 The best sharpeners and erasers for artists who draw Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 8.8, Reading Ease 60.4

Tools for Sharpening ............................................................................................................................................50 Tools for Erasing ...................................................................................................................................................51 Erasers as Drawing Tools ....................................................................................................................................52

Checking Out Charcoal ....................................................................................54 1.1.R9 Discover the versatility of charcoal by examining the marks it makes in various applications Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 7.9, Reading Ease 65.5

Charcoal Pencils ...................................................................................................................................................55 Charcoal Sticks and Powder ................................................................................................................................56

*Play with Kneaded and Vinyl Erasers .............................................................58 1.1.A4 Experiment with two different types of erasers as drawing tools Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 7.9, Reading Ease 67.4

Supplies: heavy white drawing paper or smooth watercolor paper, charcoal (stick, powder, or pencil), kneaded eraser, vinyl eraser, and paper towels

Setting up a Creative Space .............................................................................60 1.1.R10 A few ideas and tips for putting together an at-home art studio Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 7.3, Reading Ease 68.6

Choosing a Comfortable Chair and Drawing Surface ......................................................................................60 Choosing the Right Light for Drawing ...............................................................................................................62


III Putting Together a Portable Studio ..................................................................63 1.1.R11 Practical supplies to bring along when you take your love of drawing outside Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 6.8, Reading Ease 70.9

Good Posture First! ..........................................................................................65 1.1.R12 How to sit properly and comfortably when you draw Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 8.0, Reading Ease 68.1

How NOT to Sit ......................................................................................................................................................65 How to Sit While Drawing ....................................................................................................................................66

Protecting Your Wrist and Hand .......................................................................67 1.1.R13 How to properly hold drawing mediums to prevent discomfort and injury Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 11.4, Reading Ease 55.5

Small Sketches on Flat and Slanted Surfaces ...................................................................................................68 Medium Sketches on Vertical Surfaces .............................................................................................................68 Large Sketches on Any Surface .........................................................................................................................69

Examining Diagonal Lines of Masters ..............................................................70 1.1.R14 Compare drawings to identify the natural hand movements of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 10.6, Reading Ease 49.1

*Find Your Natural Hand Movements ...............................................................74 1.1.A5 Discover your natural hand movements for drawing straight and curved lines Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 10.4, Reading Ease 52.2

Supplies: drawing paper, 2B pencil, and a pencil sharpener For Drawing Straight Lines ..................................................................................................................................74 For Drawing Curved Lines ..................................................................................................................................75

How to Rotate Your Paper as you Draw ...........................................................77 1.1.R15 Improve your drawing skills by rotating your paper to use your natural hand movements Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 7.1, Reading Ease 68.6

*Sketch a Self-Portrait ......................................................................................80 1.1.A3 Document your current drawing skills by sketching yourself Flesch-Kincaid: Grade Level 7.3, Reading Ease 68.4

Supplies: paper, erasers, a 2B pencil, and a mirror

Index .................................................................................................................81


IV

Introduction

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Now everyone can draw! Introduction to Drawing complements Drawspace Curriculum Module 1: Topic 1 as a lesson plan based on fifteen resources and five activities. The Drawspace philosophy on teaching art is to emphasize the enjoyment aspects while gently introducing the technical and academic skills needed to master the subject. Through the creation of a passion for the subject matter, the quest for knowledge is deepened.

About Drawspace Curriculum Drawspace Curriculum is used by art students and educators all over the world and is designed to provide easy-to-use, high-quality curriculum for • schools, colleges, and universities • recreational teachers • homeschooling families • students who prefer to teach themselves Drawspace Curriculum is designed to gently immerse beginners in the visual art of drawing. This is the same curriculum successfully taught in Drawspace’s interactive classrooms. Each curriculum module contains intuitively organized topics. Each of these topics includes resources and activities for students with recreational and professional artistic goals. Resources include illustrated discussions and indepth demonstrations about art-related skills and techniques.

ArtSpeak ArtSpeak: A fun word used to describe the vocabulary of art. An understanding of art-related words and terms enhances the comprehension of art curricula and helps make creative experiences more pleasurable (and less frustrating). Icon: A visual image or a graphic symbol that is used to identify information or a specific task. For example, icons can identify sidebars in books or specific functions on computer display screens. Illustration: An image that is used to enhance a book or publication, and/or to help explain textual concepts. For example, illustrations are used throughout many books to further the reader’s comprehension of an idea. Sidebar: A section of text in a document that provides additional information about a topic. Many instructional art books have sidebars that provide readers with definitions of art-related words and terms. Text: The words used in writing.


V Activities enable students to put theory into practice by rendering drawings and artrelated projects.

Sizing up the Sidebars Scattered throughout this book are sidebars that are filled with useful information related to the topics being discussed. There are six different types of sidebars and each is easily identified by a simple icon. Figure 1

ArtSpeak: (Figure 1) Definitions of words and terms in the context of art and drawing.

Figure 2

As an Aside: (Figure 2) Tidbits of information about art-related subjects, such as the history of art.

Figure 3

Caution!: (Figure 3) Better safe than sorry! Protect your drawings (or yourself) from potential dangers by following the advice in these sidebars.

Figure 4

Tip!: (Figure 4) A tip can be more than the pointy end of a stick! The tips inside these sidebars can save you time, energy, and frustration by suggesting easier ways to do some tasks or how to take better care of your supplies.

Figure 5

Visual Challenge: (Figure 5) Enhance your ability to see as an artist by finding and/or examining specific art-related components in drawings or in your environment.

Figure 6

Action Challenge: (Figure 6) Gather your drawing supplies and try a new technique, spend additional time practicing a skill, and/or create a sketch or drawing.

How to Use this Book This book is designed to be read in order from beginning to end. Slowly work through the entire book in sequence, doing each activity along the way. Copyright © 2012 Drawspace Publishing and Brenda Hoddinott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing.

VI Each new piece of information, skill, or technique prepares you for the next. This first book based on Drawspace Curriculum discusses drawing supplies and shows you how to use them. Simple activities show you how to make a portfolio and help you warm up your drawing hand. There is also a discussion of how to set up a practical place to draw indoors and what to pack in a portable studio so you can comfortably draw outdoors.


Glossary of Art Terms

Resource

Glossary of Art Terms Definitions of many of the art-related terms used in the resources and activities of Drawspace Curriculum

A Abstract: A style of art that may not depict a person, place, or thing. In some cases, the subject exists in reality but may be unrecognizable in the artwork. The subjects of abstract drawings are created with line, color, value, form, pattern, and/or shape. Abstraction: A movement away from realistically depicting objects, nature, or living beings. Partial abstraction is where a subject exists in reality but may be unrecognizable (e.g., using geometric shapes to render a human face). Complete abstraction is where line, color, form, pattern, and/or shape are used to suggest emotion or a non-figurative subject. Achromatic: An artwork rendered with only black, white, and/or shades of gray (i.e., no color). Acid-free: An archival quality, long-lasting paper product that has had the acid removed from the pulp in the paper-making process. Acrylic painting: (noun) An artwork painted with acrylic paints. Acrylic paintings look very similar to oil paintings; however, acrylic paints are considerably more stable than oils, which tend to yellow or become brittle as they age. (verb) The process of creating an acrylic painting.

Acrylic paints: Water-based, fast-drying artists’ paints that are thicker and stronger than tempera or watercolor. Even though water is used to dilute acrylics from the tube, they become water-resistant when dry. Acrylics work in much the same way as watercolor paints. However, unlike watercolors, acrylics cannot be rehydrated (i.e., brought back to a liquid) once dry. Age progression: The art of rendering individuals older than they are. Often used in police work, age progression may help update an image of a child who has been missing for a long time. However, even though people’s faces change throughout their lives in natural and predictable stages, it’s impossible to accurately determine how an individual will look at a specific age. For this reason, age progression and age regression techniques are generally considered an art, rather than a science. Age regression: The art of rendering a person younger than her or his actual age. Anchor: A component of composition in which a section of a drawing subject appears to extend outside the edges of a drawing or painting. Angle: The size of the space between two straight lines that intersect or meet. This space is usually measured in degrees.


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Introduction to Drawing

Angle line: The line created when two straight lines meet or intersect to form an angle (or angles). Angle lines are used to draw such shapes as squares, rectangles, and triangles. Archaeologist: A person who studies ancient peoples by finding and documenting the things they left behind. (Many archaeologists have excellent drawing skills.) Architect: A person who uses artistic skills to plan and design buildings (or groups of buildings) and the surrounding property. Art: (also called artwork) The creations (e.g., drawings and paintings) of artists who employ their abilities to make original works of art from the intellectual conception to a never-before-seen conclusion. Artist: Somebody who works within one or more art disciplines (e.g., visual art, performance art, dance, writing, or music). ArtSpeak: A fun word used to describe the vocabulary of art. An understanding of art-related words and terms enhances the comprehension of an art curriculum and helps make creative experiences more pleasurable (and less frustrating). Atmospheric perspective: (also called aerial perspective) A visual depth of field created by various particles in the atmosphere. As an object recedes farther into distant space, it becomes lighter in value and its edges become more blurred.

Base of a nose: (also called the septum) The part of the nose between the nostrils that connects the nose to the lower face above the upper lip. Basic colors: The six most well-known colors: yellow, red, and blue (i.e., the primary colors) and orange, purple, and green (i.e., the secondary colors). A box of eight children’s crayons includes the basic colors and black and brown. Binder: (also called a three-ring binder) A sturdy folder for organizing reference materials, lesson files, printed electronic books, and small drawings. Small drawings can be sprayed with a fixative and inserted into three-ring, transparent vinyl sheet protectors before they are added to a binder. Binding agent: (also called a binder) An ingredient in paint that solidifies as it dries, thereby binding the pigment particles together so that the paint adheres to a surface. Binding agents are also added to powdered drawing mediums (such as charcoal) to compress them into solid cylindrical, square, and/or rectangular forms. Black: The complete absence of light (e.g., a room in which there is no light source whatsoever). In painting, replicating black requires a mixture of paints that create the darkest possible value. In drawing, soft charcoal can make a powerful black. Blending: The process of gently rubbing a section of shading with a blending tool (e.g., paper towel) to evenly distribute the medium over the paper’s surface.

Background: (also called distant space) The sections of a drawing or painting that are farthest away from the viewer.

Blending stump: (also called a tortillon, stump, or blender) A long, thin, cylindrical artist’s tool that is pointed at both ends and made of tightly wound paper or felt. Blending stumps are used to blend charcoal, graphite, and pastel drawings. When the tips become too dirty or dull to work properly, they can be sharpened. Blending stumps are sold in art supply stores and are available in small to large sizes. Big ones are great for large areas of shading, and the tiny ones work well for smaller, more detailed sections.

Balance: A stable arrangement of subjects and values within a drawing composition.

Blending tool: Anything that is used by an artist to blend a medium.

Ball of a nose: The large, central, rounded form of the lower half of the nose.

Blind contour drawing: A slightly unconventional method of creating a contour drawing in which artists look only at the subject and not at their drawing paper as they work. By visually following the edges of the subject while drawing, visual skills are strengthened.

Avant-garde: The creation and application of new, original, and/or experimental ideas and techniques.

B



Blue: A primary color that represents tranquility, harmony, and peace. Think of a blue sky, a calm ocean, or an iceberg. Bridge of a nose: (sometimes called the nasal bone) The section of a nose where the upper bony section joins the cartilage. While barely visible on young children, the bridge of an adult nose often protrudes as a noticeable bulge or bump. The contoured outline of the bridge is most obvious when the nose is viewed in profile.

Charcoal: A drawing medium made from a burnt organic material such as wood. Charcoal comes in various grades and is available in pencils, powder, and sticks. Charcoal pencil: A thin cylindrical stick of compressed charcoal powder inside a wooden casing. Charcoal powder: A powdered form of charcoal that works well for shading large areas of a drawing or preparing a base for drawing with erasers.

Bull’s eye: The center section of a drawing space. A composition is weakened when the primary subject is drawn within the bull’s eye.

Charcoal sticks: A type of charcoal that is made by compressing powdered charcoal and a binding agent into cylindrical or rectangular sticks.

Burnishing: The process of applying one or more layers of a dry medium (e.g., colored pencils or graphite) over another to lighten, darken, or blend the colors or values.

Chiaroscuro: A drawing and painting technique that was introduced during the Renaissance in which light and dark values are balanced to create the illusion of a three-dimensional reality.

C Carbon pencil: A drawing medium that makes soft, velvety marks that are gorgeous for sketching. Caricature: A type of cartoon, usually based on an actual person, with the individual’s various characteristics and facial features exaggerated for comic effect. Cartoon: A humorous, lighthearted, and/or satirical drawing or sketch. Cast shadow: A dark section on an object or a surface adjacent to a subject that receives little or no direct light. The values of a cast shadow are darkest next to the object and become gradually lighter as they move farther away. Chalk pastels: A drawing medium that is available in pencils and sticks. Colors can be dry mixed by layering one on top of another and can be easily blended for soft, realistic still-life subjects and portraits. The sharp corners and edges of sticks can be used to draw thin lines and the sides can make broad strokes. Chalk: A drawing medium derived from various natural sources, including hematite, carbon, and calcite. Chalk is available in a broad range of natural browns and sepias that are ideal for rendering studies of great masters’ drawings.

Circle: A geometric shape in which all the points of its outline are an equal distance from its center point. Circular shape: A shape created when the ends of a curved line meet (such as in the letter “O”). Circular shapes are often used to outline the forms of various objects and living beings. Classical drawing: The drawing techniques invented by ancient Greeks and Romans for creating realistic drawings. Classical drawing was later enhanced by the great masters of the Renaissance. Clay: A naturally occurring material that hardens when dried. Clay is mixed with graphite to make graphite mediums. Clip: A tool usually made of metal that can be used indoors or outdoors to securely clamp sheets of paper to a drawing board. When artists draw outdoors, clips can prevent their drawings from falling on the ground or blowing away. Clockwise: A circular direction or motion that follows the movement of the hands of a clock. Collage: An artwork created by gluing a selection of objects (such as photographs, ribbons, and/or colored papers) to paper, board, or canvas.


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Color: The visual qualities of objects based on individual perceptions of their hues and values. Basic colors include yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, and green.

Conté crayon: A drawing medium in which pigments are mixed with non-adhesive binders and wax. Conté performs like a cross between a chalk pastel and a child’s wax crayon.

Color wheel: A method of arranging colors in a circular format to easily reference primary, secondary, intermediary, and complementary colors.

Continuous line: A line that is rendered without lifting the medium from the drawing surface.

Colored pencils: A dry medium for creating colored drawings. Colored pencils come in a wide variety of qualities from student to professional. During the manufacturing process, various synthetic and/or organic pigments are added to binding agents and wax. The permanency rating of the pigment helps determine the quality of the pencils. Colored pencils are relatively inexpensive, not messy, and portable. They work equally well for subjects that are soft and delicate or bold and bright.

Contour: The outline of a shape or form (or a section of a shape or form). Contour crosshatching: A highly effective classical shading technique for creating the illusion of three-dimensional forms. Contour drawing: (noun) A drawing comprised of outlines that follow the contours of the edges of various components of a drawing subject. (verb) The process of creating a contour drawing.

Commercial arts: A diverse range of artistic careers in which professional artists create artworks and/or typography for the production, manufacture, processing, promotion, or merchandising of products.

Contour hatching: A classical shading technique in which sets of curved hatching lines follow the outlines, contours, and/or forms of the drawing subject and accentuate the illusion of a three-dimensional reality.

Commission: An order placed with an artist for an original work of art.

Contour lines: Lines formed when the shared edges of spaces and/or objects meet.

Complementary colors: A set of two very different colors that are directly opposite one another on a color wheel (e.g., red and green, yellow and purple, and orange and blue). When placed beside one other, these colors make one another seem brighter and more vibrant.

Contrast: The comparison of different values when put beside one another. Contrast is an invaluable tool for accentuating various components of composition.

Composite art: The best-known discipline of forensic art in which the artist (often called a sketch artist) translates other people’s memories into drawings. Composition: The arrangement of the various parts of a drawing subject within the borders of a drawing space. Compound curve: A curved line that changes direction to travel in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions (e.g., the letter “S”). Conservation framing: (also called preservation framing) The specific archival materials (e.g. museum quality archival glass) and techniques used in the process of framing an artwork to protect it from longterm deterioration or damage from environmental pollutants, acid, and light.

Cool colors: The colors blue, green, and purple, as well as mixtures of any of these three colors with white or black or with one another. Cool colors are usually soothing and calming (e.g., colors that reflect on snow and ice.) Copyright: A form of protection that grants artists the exclusive right to sell, reproduce, or exhibit their own original artworks. In a country that has signed the Berne Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Property (also known as the Berne Convention) artists automatically own the copyrights to their original creations from the moment each is completed. Counterclockwise: (also called anticlockwise) A direction or motion that is opposite to the movement of the hands of a clock. Cranial mass: (also called the cranium) The large upper section of the skull at the upper back of the head.



Crosshatching: A shading technique in which sets of straight or curved lines cross over, overlap, crisscross, and/or cut through other sets.

Drawing powder: Tiny loose particles of a dry drawing medium that have been broken down from a solid into a powder.

Curved contour lines: Lines that follow the contours of a drawing subject and illustrate its threedimensional forms.

Drawing space: The area in which a drawing is rendered within a specific perimeter. It can be the shape of a sheet of paper itself or a shape outlined on paper, such as a square, rectangle, or circle.

Curved line: A line that curves or bends (e.g., the letters “C” and “U”). Curved lines can be drawn in any direction and be any length. Curved-sided shapes: Shapes that are created with curved lines and have sections where two or more of the curved lines meet at a point or points (e.g., heart or teardrop shapes).

D Diagonal line: A line that is neither vertical nor horizontal but rather slants at an angle. Diamond shape: A parallelogram in which a straight line drawn from two opposite points would be perpendicular to a line connecting the second set of opposite points. Diptych: A set of two related paintings or drawings that come together as a single artwork. Distant space: (also called the background) The sections of a drawing or painting that are farthest away from the viewer. Drafting desk: (also called drafting table) An adjustable worktable with a slanted top. Drawing: (noun) The image that results from the application of a medium to a surface. A drawing defines an artist’s choice of subjects from his or her own unique perspective. (verb) The process of applying a medium to a surface to create an image. Drawing accessories: Any tools or products that enhance an artist’s drawing experiences. Drawing board: An unbendable, portable, smooth surface used to support an artist’s sketchbook or drawing paper. Drawing paper: An acid-free paper that is designed specifically for artists and is available in various types, weights, colors, textures, and sizes.

Drawing stick: A drawing tool that is made by compressing and shaping a medium (e.g., conté crayon, chalk, oil or chalk pastels, graphite, or charcoal) into a cylindrical or rectangular chunk. Dry media: Non-liquid drawing mediums (e.g., colored pencils, graphite, conté crayon, charcoal, and chalk). Dry mixing: The process of using a dry medium (e.g., colored pencils) to mix two or more different colors together to make a new color. Dry mount: The process of adhering paper artwork or photographs to a board by using dry adhesive substances, high heat, and/or a dry mount press. Duct tape: (also called duck tape) A well-known strong, flexible, fabric-backed sticky tape used for a vast range of professional and creative applications.

E Ear: The organ for hearing in humans and many animals. Ear canal: The opening to the inner ear. Easel: An artist’s accessory often made from wood or metal that can be used to support a canvas when painting or a sheet of drawing paper attached to a drawing board when drawing. An easel can be any size from a simple tabletop collapsible tripod to a large, floorto-ceiling studio type with a large base. Egg tempera: A water-based paint that is made with an egg yolk binder. Elements of art: The fundamental visual symbols found in visual art, including (but not limited to) line, shape, form, texture, and color. Eye: The organ of sight and light sensitivity.


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Eyeball: (also called the white of the eye) The entire spherical section of an eye that is safely protected within an opening in the skull called the orbital socket. Eyebrow: An arch-shaped group of hairs above the eye. Eyelashes: Fine hairs that grow from the outer edges of the upper and lower eyelids.

F Facial expressions: Voluntary and involuntary movements of facial muscles in response to various emotions. As the facial muscles do their jobs, different sections of the face move and often create folds and wrinkles in the skin. Facial features: The eyes, nose, and mouth. Facial guidelines: Proportional guides that identify the approximate locations of human features and ears on an average head within specific spaces. Facial mass: (also called the face or facial area) The lower frontal section of a human head. Facial muscles: The muscles of a human face. Facial slope: The angle of a person’s head (excluding the nose) when viewed from the side from the forward projection at the base of the upper teeth upward to the forehead. Feathered line: A series of short lines that appear to be a single line. Figurative: The visual depiction of a human body in a drawing or painting. Figure: The body of a human being. Fixative spray: An aerosol liquid that is lightly sprayed on artworks to adhere a medium to paper and lessen the likelihood of smudging. Focal point: (also called center of interest or center of focus) A term used to identify the most important element(s) in an artwork. Folk art: A genre of art that depicts the traditional or indigenous lifestyle, customs, culture, and values of a specific society.

Foreground: The sections of an artwork that are closest to the viewer. Subjects in the foreground are usually rendered with more detail and a greater contrast of values than those in the middle ground or background. Forensic art: Artistic techniques used by police departments and investigative agencies in the identification, apprehension, or conviction of wanted or missing persons. Foreshortening: A component of perspective that describes the visual distortion of objects and living beings when viewed from extreme angles. The word foreshortening applies to a single object or figure whereas the word perspective refers to an entire scene. Form: An element of art that is created in drawings and paintings by using shading and/or colors to transform shapes into three-dimensional structures. Fresco: (also called a mural) An artwork painted on a thin layer of plaster that covers a wall or ceiling. Frescoes that date back more than 3,500 years have been discovered in Greece. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (in Rome) is also a fresco that was painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. Friable: The extent to which a dry drawing medium crumbles or breaks. Drawings created with friable mediums are usually sprayed with a fixative to prevent the medium from eventually falling off the paper.

G Geometric perspective: (also called linear perspective) A precise drawing technique to render a visual depth of field with a horizon line, vanishing point(s), and perspective lines. As an object appears to recede into distant space, it becomes progressively smaller until it seems to vanish into a vanishing point. Gesture sketch: A quickly rendered sketch that uses simple sketching techniques to capture the energy of the past, present, or potential movements of living beings. Golden Mean: (also called the Golden Ratio or Divine Ratio) A mathematical formula devised by the ancient Greeks and used to create a balanced composition through the strategic placement of focal points.



Grade: The softness or hardness of the mixture used in the manufacture of drawing mediums. Graduation: (also called gradient, graduated shading, or graduated values) A continuous, seamless progression of values from dark to light or light to dark. Graphite: A soft black form of opaque carbon found in nature that is usually mixed with clay in the manufacture of various types of drawing tools for artists.

High contrast: Shading that is created by drawing the darkest values adjacent to the highlights and lightest values. High Renaissance: (also see Renaissance) The styles and techniques of the early sixteenth-century paintings of Florence and Rome characterized by technical mastery and humanistic content.

Green: A secondary color made with yellow and blue that is soothing, nurturing, and calming, and symbolizes nature, good luck, youth, and generosity.

Highlight: A small section of a drawing subject that is rendered with white or a very light value to identify the brightest area where light bounces off its surface. Highlights are more pronounced on shiny or glistening surfaces than those surfaces that are dull or matte.

Grid: A precise arrangement of a specific number of squares of exact sizes proportionately drawn on both a photo and a drawing surface.

History: A written record of the past usually about the lives and activities of human beings and their environments.

Gum arabic: A binding agent that is added to various media to improve the bonding properties of their ingredients.

Horizon line: (also called eye level) An imaginary horizontal line that exists at the viewer’s eye level and divides the line of vision. The artist controls whether the viewer looks at the artwork at eye level or downward or upward. The viewer’s eye level is based on where the horizon line is drawn.

H Handmade paper: Any type of paper that is made without modern technology or machinery.

Horizontal: A flat surface or line that is at a right angle to vertical lines and is parallel to a level surface.

Hardcover: A durable type of book cover that is made from a thick and unbendable material.

Horizontal line: A geometric object that is at a right angle to a vertical line and parallel to a level surface.

Hardness: The numerical rating of H-grade media according to their ingredients. Harder mixtures have higher numbers.

Hot pressed: A type of paper that is pressed through hot cylinders during its manufacture. Many smooth watercolor papers are hot pressed.

Hatching: A series of lines (called a set) drawn closely together to give the illusion of values. Depending on the shading effects desired, the individual lines in hatching sets can be far apart or close together.

Hue: Another word for a color (e.g., red, purple, or teal).

Heightening: The technique of applying a light pigment (e.g., white chalk) to sections of a drawing to enhance the illusion of mass, form, and light. Hematite: The ingredient in natural red chalk that determines its specific hue. Heptagon: A straight-sided shape with seven sides and seven angles. Hexagon: A straight-sided shape with six sides and six angles.

I Icon: A visual image or a graphic symbol that is used to identify information or a specific task. For example, icons can identify sidebars in books or specific functions on computer display screens. Illustration: An image that is used to enhance a book or publication and/or to help explain textual concepts. For example, illustrations are used throughout many books to further the reader’s comprehension of an idea.


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Illustrative realism: A style of art often used by commercial artists (such as illustrators, designers, and graphic artists) in which subjects are rendered with techniques, such as unrealistic outlines, to help the image stand out strongly in digital and printed documents. Image modification: An artistic technique used by forensic artists to modify an image. The process can be as simple as adding or removing a beard or mustache from a photograph of a suspect, or as complicated as drawing an entire face hidden behind a ski mask by referring to nothing more than a video image. Impressionism: A style of painting (and drawing) originating in France in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that sought to capture a visual impression of a subject rather than its objective reality. In-home studio: A personal drawing place within (or adjacent to) an artist’s home. An ideal in-home studio has adequate space for the artist and his or her art supplies. It can range from a small section of a table to a large, fully equipped professional art studio. Ink: A thin liquid (usually black or colored) that is applied to a surface with a brush or pen to write, paint, or draw. Inks have been used by artists for hundreds of years. Most Renaissance pen and ink drawings were rendered with black and/or various shades of brown, red, and orange. The most popular inks for traditional and classical drawing are India, Chinese, and Bistro. Inner corner of an eye: A small, reddish, triangular or oval-shaped form in the inside corner of the eye close to the nose.

J Juxtaposition: An aspect of composition that refers to the close placement of elements in order to compare or contrast their relationships and/or enhance the message or meaning of the artwork. Artists can put two or more objects together that have opposite associations or interpretations (e.g., putting something new and shiny beside an object that is old and weathered).

K Key: The overall amount of light and dark values in a drawing. Kneaded eraser: A versatile, soft, pliable type of eraser used to erase parts of a drawing or to gently pat a drawing medium to make a lighter value or line.

L Landscape: A drawing or painting depicting an expanse of natural scenery that includes some components of land such as trees, mountains, or beaches. Landscape format: (also called horizontal format) A rectangular drawing space that is rotated so the two longer sides are at the top and bottom.

Intensity: The brightness or dullness of a color.

Leadpoint: An ancient drawing tool made of lead or a lead alloy that left marks on unprepared paper. Lead produced a beautiful faint line that could be erased.

Intermediary colors: Colors that are created by combining secondary colors.

Left brain: The left hemisphere of the brain, which controls analytical, mathematical, and verbal thinking.

Iris: The colored circular section of an eyeball surrounding the pupil.

Level: The comparison of one horizontal surface or line to another or others. Life drawing: (noun) An artwork created by using living beings as references rather than objects. (verb) The process of drawing from a living being rather than a photo or sketch.



Light source: The direction from which a dominant light originates. A light source identifies the light and shadow areas of a drawing subject allowing artists to know where to add light or dark lines and values in their artworks. Line: A visually identifiable path of a point moving in space. Straight, angle, and curved lines can vary in width, direction, and length, and are used in drawings to visually separate and/or define the forms of a drawing subject. Line drawing: An artwork created with only lines. A line drawing aims to accurately outline the contours of the various shapes and/or forms of a drawing subject. Line of symmetry: A real or imaginary line dividing an object or drawing space into two equal sections. In a drawing, the outline on one side of the line of symmetry needs to be a mirror image of the other side. Lineweight: (also called the weight of a line) The value and/or width of a line. Low contrast: Shading with a limited range of values. Lower eyelid: The fold of skin that protects the lower section of the eyeball. The lower eyelid cannot move without help from facial muscles around the eye.

Master: A term of respect and honor earned by accomplished artists with exemplary skills in their specific discipline. Matte: A surface texture that is dull and lusterless that often has additional characteristics such as smooth or rough. Many fabrics, rocks, and unfinished wood have a matte texture. Mechanical pencil: A drawing tool with an internal mechanism that pushes a thin graphite lead placed in a tiny tube inside the holder upward through the tip. Medium: An art material, such as clay, paint, or graphite, that is used to make art. Almost anything can be an art medium, from the burnt end of a stick to a computer software program. Mediums: (also called media) More than one medium. Metalpoint: A drawing tool, popular during the Renaissance, that was made from a relatively soft metal, such as lead, silver, gold, or copper. Mixed lineweight: A single contour line made up of a combination of different lineweights (e.g., thick, thin, light, and/or dark). Mixed media: An artwork created with two or more different mediums.

M

Modernism: A style of art that makes a distinctive break away from all previous genres.

Manga: A Japanese word for comic book that refers to a popular style of cartooning that originated in Japan. Manga also refers to reprints of Japanese comics that are translated from Japanese into other languages (including English).

Monochromatic: A drawing or painting that is rendered with a range of values (or tints) of a single color.

Manikin: An accurately proportioned male or female model that can be bent and contorted into various poses. Many manikins are designed specifically for artists as references for practicing figurative drawings and/or establishing accurate human proportions for a specific pose in an artwork. Manikins of animals are also available. Markers: Disposable drawing and writing tools with a soft tip often made of felt that are filled with a colored or black liquid or ink. Markers are available with tips of many sizes from very fine to large.

Mummy portrait: A painting of a man, woman, or child that was attached to the face of a burial mummy. Many date back to the Roman occupation of Egypt. Mural: A drawing or painting on a wall, ceiling, or other large surface.

N Negative space: The area, space, or background that visually surrounds or appears behind an object, person, or another space.


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Newsprint: An inexpensive paper that is not acidfree and is generally used for printing newspapers. Newsprint is not recommended for drawing because it is very thin, tears easily, and quickly yellows due to its acidic content. Nose: The organ of smell and the entrance to the respiratory tract. Nostrils: The two openings on the lower section of a nose.

O Octagon: An eight-sided shape with eight angles. Oil paint: (also called oil or oils) A painting medium that is made by mixing a finely ground adhesive pigment with an oil binder. Oil paint was the primary painting medium of the High Renaissance and has continued to dominate painting for the past 500 years. Oil-based paints take much longer to dry than acrylics but offer a greater ease of manipulation, and their colors change very little when dry. Oil painting: A work of art created by applying oil paints to a surface (such as canvas, heavy linen, or board). Oil pastels: A dry drawing and painting medium in which pigments are mixed with a very dense oil binder. Oil pastels are available in cylindrical and rectangular sticks covered with a thin paper. Oil solvents (such as turpentine) can be brushed on an oil pastel drawing to blend the colors for a more painterly appearance. One-point perspective: The technique of using a single vanishing point to create the illusion of a straighton view into distant space. One-point perspective occurs when a face of an object (such as a cube) is closer to the viewer than its sides. Opaque: A medium or material through which light cannot be detected. Optical illusion: (also called a visual illusion) An image that differs from objective reality, but, when processed by the subconscious, is interpreted as reality.

Orbital socket: (also called the orbital cavity) The protective bone cavity of the face that keeps the eyeball protected. Original: An artwork (such as a painting or drawing) that was created by an artist who was the first to bring the work from its intellectual conception to its creative conclusion. There can never be more than one original; however, reproductions can be made (by the artist or with the written permission of the artist) by replicating the original image. Oval: (also called an ellipse) An elongated circle. Overlapping: A component of perspective and composition used to create or enhance the illusion of a three-dimensional reality on a two-dimensional surface by rendering a subject so it visually appears to be in front of another subject.

P Paint: An art medium (e.g., watercolor, oil, or acrylic) that is made by mixing pigment with a thick or thin liquid. Paint is applied to a surface (e.g., paper, fabric, or board) with a tool (e.g., brush, palette knife, or fingers) to create a painting. Painter: A person who paints. Painting: An artistic composition created by applying a liquid medium (e.g., paint or ink) to a surface. Parallel: Two or more straight lines that slant in the exact same direction and can extend to infinity without ever intersecting. Parallelogram: A four-sided shape with two sets of parallel sides that are equal in length and in which the opposite angles are identical. Parchment: (also called vellum) An ancient drawing or writing surface made from calf, sheep, or goat skin that was widely used before paper was easily available. Contemporary artists generally prefer a synthetic parchment paper, which is much less expensive, more readily available, and is not made from animal skins.

Orange: A secondary color created with yellow and red. Orange is energetic, vibrant, and flamboyant.



Pastels: Dry drawing mediums available in either sticks or pencils that are manufactured by mixing dry, powdered pigments with binding agents. Artworks created with pastels can be called sketches, drawings, or paintings. Pattern: The visual arrangement of the different values of a drawing subject as represented by lines and/ or shading. Pencil: A broad category of writing and drawing tools that have a medium inside a holder. It wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that pencil defined a stick of graphite encased in a cylindrical piece of wood. Pens: Disposable, refillable, or rechargeable drawing tools used for commercial art, sketching, and drawing. Pentagon: A straight-sided shape with five sides and five angles. Perpendicular: A straight line (real or imaginary) that meets (or intersects) another straight line to form at least one ninety-degree angle. Perspective: (also called geometric or linear perspective) A technique made up of a precise series of rules that makes subjects in drawings appear to recede into distant space. Perspective lines: Imaginary straight lines that extend from the edges of drawing subjects back to a vanishing point (or points) on the horizon line. Photorealism: A genre of drawing and painting based on photographs that are used by the artist as references to create a highly realistic artwork with photographic qualities. Pigment: The colored material that is mixed with dry or liquid mediums to create the colors in a colored artwork. Pointillism: A method of drawing or painting with several layers of small colored dots, strokes, or individual brushstrokes. When viewed from a distance, the dots in pointillist paintings and drawings appear to blend together to create the illusion of depth, visual masses, and forms. Nineteenth-century French impressionistic artists (including George Seurat and Paul Signac) helped this genre to become a highly respected style of painting and (more recently) drawing.

Polychromatic: An artwork created with several different colors. Portable studio: Drawing or painting materials that are packed in an easily transportable container used for creating art at locations beyond one’s home. Portfolio: A hard-sided case in which artists transport and store paintings, drawings, sheets of drawing paper, and/or their portfolio of work. Portfolio of work: A body of work (i.e., drawings, paintings, and designs) created by an artist for selfpromotion and/or to supplement applications for career advancement opportunities, such as educational upgrades or gallery exhibitions. Portrait: An artwork depicting a likeness to the face (and sometimes the entire body) of a person or animal. Portrait format: (also called vertical format) A rectangular drawing space that is rotated so the two shorter sides are at the top and bottom. Positive space: The space occupied by an object or living being and/or its various parts. Post-mortem reconstruction: Artistic and scientific techniques used by forensic artists to sculpt a three-dimensional head and face from a skull. Pouncing: A technique that was most popular during the Renaissance for transferring the outlines of an image to another surface (e.g., transferring a drawing on paper to a canvas or wall). First, the outline of the image is perforated with a series of tiny holes and placed on or taped to the final surface. A fine powder (such as charcoal powder) is sprinkled (or sometimes gently rubbed) over the image outlines causing some of the powder to fall through the holes onto the new surface. The original image is removed to reveal guidelines on the new surface for creating another drawing or painting of the image. Powdered: A drawing medium (e.g., graphite) that has been ground into a fine powder. Prehistoric: The period in time before language was used to write and record history. Prehistoric humans drew pictures on many surfaces, including the walls of caves.


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Prepared paper: A paper with a surface that has been coated with a substance that seals, colors, and/ or alters its absorbency and/or tooth. The surface of many drawing papers used during the fifteenth century was coated with several layers of white lead and ground bone that was tinted with a pigment and then tempered with glue sizing. Primary colors: There are three primary colors: yellow, red, and blue. All other colors originate from primary colors and no combinations of other colors can make primary colors. Primary colors are high-intensity and go well together to create a drawing that looks incredibly bright. By mixing the primary colors with other colors in various combinations, millions of different colors can be created. Primary focal point: The single most important center of interest (or focus) in a drawing. For example, in a drawing of an animal, it may be the eyes, the entire face, or a whole section of the body that is especially fascinating. Proportion: The relationship in size between two or more components of an artwork. Pupil of an eye: The dark circular shape within the iris that adjusts its size under different lighting conditions. Purple: A secondary color that is spiritual, mysterious, and exotic, and represents royalty, nobility, and enlightenment. Some purples made with more red than blue fall into the category of warm colors.

Q Quill: A pen made from a feather. The hard, hollow straw of the feather is dipped in ink and then scratched across a surface. Quills were a popular drawing tool during the Renaissance and were usually made from goose, swan, or turkey feathers.

R Realism: A style of art in which living beings and objects are represented in an artwork as they appear in real life without stylization or distortion.

Realistic sculpture: A three-dimensional art form that portrays recognizable shapes, objects, or people. Ream: A unit of 500 sheets of paper used to calculate a paper’s weight. Rectangle: A parallelogram with four straight sides, four right angles, and unequal adjacent sides. Red: A primary color considered to be the warmest and most energetic color. It is associated with love, energy, and danger (as in a red traffic light). Red chalk: (also called sanguine) A drawing medium made from a combination of clay and hematite (also known as iron). Leonardo da Vinci is thought to be the first artist to use red chalk extensively for drawing toward the end of the fifteenth century. Reflected light: A faint light reflected or bounced back on an object from nearby surfaces. Renaissance: (from the French word for rebirth) A period in European history from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth century. The era is defined by great advances in education and intellectual pursuits and great social and political upheaval. During these centuries, visual art developed more than at any other time since the beginning of history. Between 1480 and 1527, during the period known as the High Renaissance, many of history’s most renowned artists created some of the greatest masterpieces in the history of art. Render: The process of making or creating something. For example, an artist can render a sketch by drawing lines on a sheet of paper. Resource files: (also called resources) A collection of information (such as books, articles, photos, and digital images) used by artists as references for writing about and/or creating art. Right angle: A geometric object that is formed when two straight perpendicular lines meet at a ninety-degree angle. Right brain: The right hemisphere of the brain, which controls perceptive and visual functions. The creative and insightful right brain interprets abstract connections between lines, shapes, and spaces in a non-narrative context to help the artist see proportions.



Romanticism: A genre of art during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that celebrated nature rather than civilization.

Sepia ink: A thin, brown liquid medium used for painting, writing, and/or creating drawings with refillable and/or rechargeable pens.

Rough: The surface features of abrasive, lumpy, irregular, or jagged objects.

Set of lines: A grouping of several lines used to create shading.

Rough sketch: A quickly rendered visual notation of an image or idea that illustrates the important elements of a subject using very few details. Rough sketches can capture a pose or gesture, establish values, suggest proportions, and/or arrange the major components of a composition.

Set of straight lines: A grouping of two or more vertical, horizontal, or diagonal straight lines often drawn parallel to one another.

Rule of thirds: A compositional formula that identifies four ideal locations within a rectangular drawing space for a focal point. The rule of thirds is a variation of an old traditional compositional formula known as the Golden Mean.

S Sandpaper block: An artist’s tool with tear-off sheets of fine sandpaper used to sharpen the points of pencils. Score: To cut slightly but not sever. Cardboard or matboard should be scored less than halfway into its total thickness. Sculptor: An artist who creates sculptures. A wellknown sculptor of the Renaissance was Michelangelo (1475–1564) who created the statue of David. Sculpture: A three-dimensional artwork that is made of a material such as wood, bronze, rock, or marble. Secondary colors: The colors orange, green, and purple that are created by mixing two primary colors together. Secondary focal point: One or more centers of interest in a drawing composition that are significant but not quite as important as the primary focal point. Sepia: The popular brown colors used in various media. The word sepia (derived from Latin and Greek words for cuttlefish) was used in the Renaissance to describe an artist’s brownish-gray pigment made from the dried ink sacs of cuttlefish and squid.

Shading: The process of adding values to a drawing so as to create the illusion of texture, form, and/or threedimensional space. Shading map: (also called a value map) A plan (or blueprint) for adding shading to a drawing. The shapes of various values are identified and lightly outlined on the drawing paper before the shading is added. Shadow: A dark area on an object or living being that receives little to no light. Shape: A two-dimensional geometrical object that can serve as the outline of a three-dimensional object. For example, a circle is the shape of a sphere. Sharpener: A tool for sharpening pencils. An ideal sharpener for artists is hand held, made of metal, and has two openings (for regular and oversized pencils). Shiny: A texture that has highlights reflecting off its surface. Shiny objects can be glossy or highly polished such as the surface of a shiny new penny or polished brass. Sidebar: A section of text in a document that provides additional information about a topic. Many instructional art books have sidebars that provide readers with definitions of art-related words and terms. Single curved line: (also called a simple curved line) A curved line that curves in only one direction either clockwise or counterclockwise. Sketch: (noun) A simple representation, outline, or drawing that captures the integral aspects of a subject quickly and efficiently. (verb) The process of rendering a sketch. Sketchbook: Several sheets of drawing paper that are bound together and contained within a soft or hard cover.


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Smooth: A texture with very few surface features. A hand run over a smooth surface will feel little or no unevenness or roughness. Softcover: A flexible book cover that is usually made of paper. Softness: The numerical rating of B-grade media according to their ingredients. Softer mixtures have higher numbers. Sphere: A perfectly round geometric object (a threedimensional circle) in which all points on the surface are the same distance from the center point. Balls and globes are examples of spheres. Spiral line: A curved line that can never meet itself to form a shape. It can continue in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction and simply becomes larger (or smaller) and less (or more) curved the longer it gets. Spray fixative: A transparent aerosol coating that is sprayed onto an artwork to help prevent smudging. Square: A parallelogram with four straight sides that are the same length and four right angles. Squirkles: Randomly drawn, overlapping curved lines and shapes that are used to create a shading technique called squirkling. Squirkling: A shading technique in which randomly drawn, overlapping curved lines and shapes (called squirkles) create values. Sticks: A type of drawing tool in which a medium is compressed into a block or cylindrical sticks. Sticks come in various sizes, which make them highly adaptable for diverse mark-making styles and techniques. Large sticks are great for large sketches, and smaller sticks work well for smaller works. Still life: An artwork that depicts representational, inanimate objects such as fruit, flowers, or bottles. Stippling: (also called stipple or stippled) A shading technique in which a series of dots are arranged in groups to create the illusion of values. Storage portfolio: A hard-sided foldable case in which artists store drawings and sheets of drawing paper to protect them from damage.

Straight line: A geometrical object that provides the shortest connection between any two points. Straight lines can be rendered thick or thin, long or short, and drawn in any direction. They are categorized into three basic types: vertical (straight up and down and at a right angle to a horizontal line), horizontal (level and at a right angle to a vertical line), and diagonal (slanting or sloping at an angle). Straight-sided shape: A geometric object such as a square, rectangle, or triangle that is created when three or more straight lines connect to form a shape. Stump: A pointed, solid stick of soft paper or leather that is used for blending and shading drawings. Style: An artist’s individual approach to his or her own art. An artist’s style is defined by an accumulation of her/his inherent preferences, life experiences, artistic philosophy, personal goals, and academic background. When an artist’s personal style is critiqued and/or examined by others, the resulting label may focus more on a particular historical period or artistic movement than the artist’s true style. Stylus: (also called leadpoint or metalpoint) A thin metal stick used for drawing. It was most often cast with a fine point at one end and a blunter point at the opposite end so as to provide artists with the creative freedom to vary the width of their lines as they worked. A stylus leaves a thin deposit of metal on the surface of paper producing a very fine line. Silver was very popular with Renaissance artists because it eventually tarnished and took on a beautiful, luminous, brown tonality. Subject: Any object or living being that an artist chooses to represent in an artwork. Symmetry: An arrangement of lines, shapes, and/ or values on opposite sides of an often imaginary center line that appear to be duplications or mirror images of one another. Both sides are said to be symmetrical.

T Talent: A process of self-discovery throughout which artists acknowledge their interest and motivation to become exceptional in a specific area.



Technical pens: Drawing tools available in both refillable and pre-filled (disposable) holders that work beautifully for creating the sharp, even lines used for detailed drawings, drafting, graphic design, and commercial art. Technique: A well-known method (e.g., a specific way to do shading) that is used to accomplish a particular activity or task. Text: The words used in writing. Texture: The surface details of an object that can be identified by sight, touch, and/or a general knowledge of the subject. Thumbnail: A preliminary sketch (often smaller than the planned size of the final drawing) rendered before an artist begins a drawing that is designed to work through potential problems with composition, values, perspective, and/or proportions. Tone: (also called value) The degree of lightness or darkness of an area in an artwork. Tone varies from the bright white of a light source through shades of gray to the deepest black shadows. Tooth: The surface texture of paper. Paper with a smooth tooth is flat with a silky texture; medium tooth is uneven with a slightly rough texture; and coarse tooth is bumpy with a very rough texture. Torso: The primary structure of a human body to which the head, arms, and legs are connected. Traditional realist: An artist who prefers to draw subjects as they exist in reality. Trapezoid: A four-sided shape in which only two sides are parallel. Triangle: A shape with three straight sides and three angles. Triptych: An artwork consisting of three related paintings or drawings.

U

Unity: A balanced composition in which the various components of a subject come together to create a sense of harmonious integration. Upper eyelid: A fold of skin that opens and closes automatically (blinking) to protect the eyeball.

V Values: The various shades of gray in an artwork. A broad range of values can be achieved by using various grades of a medium and by varying the density of the shading lines and the pressure used when applying the medium to a surface. Value scale: A range of different values that are drawn in order from light to dark or from dark to light. Vanishing point: (also called VP) An imaginary point (or points) on the horizon line where perspective lines converge. Vertical line: A geometric object that is straight up and down and at a right angle to a level surface. Viewfinder frame: An adjustable, see-through frame that allows artists to look at a subject from various viewpoints. A viewfinder frame is invaluable when planning a composition for any type of drawing or painting (e.g., portraits, figures, and landscapes). An easily constructed viewfinder frame consists of two adjustable L-shaped pieces of heavy paper, cardboard, or matboard that are held together with paper clips. Vinyl eraser: A soft white eraser with a plastic-like texture used for erasing sections of drawings. Vision: (1) The ability to see. (2) An artist’s creative aspirations. Visual art: Artworks that can be appreciated with the sense of sight (e.g., drawings, paintings, and sculptures). Visual perception: The ability to use one’s eyesight to interpret information in one’s surroundings.

Underdrawing: A loosely rendered sketch or drawing created as a guide for a final artwork.


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W Warm colors: The colors yellow, orange, and red, as well as mixtures of any of these three colors with white or black or with one other. Warm colors are usually invigorating (e.g., the colors of fire). Weight of paper: The thickness of individual sheets of paper. Thin paper weighs very little but is easily torn and damaged. Thick paper is more durable than thin because it weighs more. White of the eye: The large visible section of an eyeball that is light in value and color but is not really white. Wings of a nose: The two softly rounded (often triangular shaped) forms extending from the sides of the ball of the nose.

Wood-encased pencil: (also called a wooden pencil) A drawing or writing tool with a thin cylindrical stick of medium held inside a wooden casing. Woodless pencil: A thick cylindrical stick of graphite wrapped in a vinyl casing. Woodless pencils are ideal for large graphite drawings needing wider strokes than regular pencils can provide. When sharpened, they can also make thin lines.

Y Yellow: A primary color that is bright, cheery, and powerful. It is the color of happiness, sunshine, and many flowers (e.g., daffodils).


Traveling Back in Time with Graphite

Resource

Traveling Back in Time with Graphite A few fun tidbits of information about the history of graphite

Figure 1

As a drawing medium, graphite has survived the test of time. Many graphite drawings created hundreds of years ago are safely tucked away in museums and art galleries all over the world.

How the “Lead” Pencil Got its Name Long before the discovery of graphite, artists made drawings with small thin rods made from a soft metal. Styluses made of lead (called leadpoint) have been traced back to ancient Rome (Figure 1). A stylus worked by leaving a thin deposit of metal on paper that had been coated with a slightly rough surface. A leadpoint would produce a gray line.

ArtSpeak Clay: A naturally occurring material that becomes hardened when dried. Drawing: (noun) The image that results from the application of a medium to a surface. (verb) The process of applying a medium to a surface to create an image. Graphite: A soft black form of opaque carbon found in nature that is usually mixed with clay in the manufacture of various types of drawing tools for artists. Medium: An art material, such as clay, paint, or graphite used to make art. Almost anything can be an art medium, from the burnt end of a stick to a computer software program. Pencil: A broad category of writing and drawing tools that have a medium inside a holder. Stylus: (also called leadpoint or metalpoint) A thin metal rod or stick used for drawing.


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Some styluses had a fine point at one end and a blunter point at the opposite end so artists could draw both thin and thick lines. Leadpoint is considered the ancestor of the modern graphite pencil. The term lead pencil is often incorrectly used to describe graphite pencils that are made of graphite and clay (and contain no lead whatsoever). Graphite pencils do, however, produce a warm-toned gray line that looks very similar to the marks made by leadpoint. During the Renaissance, styluses were made from lead, silver, gold, or copper. The great masters created many beautiful intricate drawings with only a stylus. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Albrecht Duerer (1471-1528) are considered to be masters of silverpoint work. Artists also used styluses to do underdrawings for more detailed drawings or paintings. When you look closely at old pen and ink drawings, you can often find a few faint remnants of underdrawings. Examine a graphite drawing meticulously copied from a quill and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci (Figure 2). Figure 2

ArtSpeak Master: A term of respect and honor earned by accomplished artists with exemplary skills in their specific disciplines. Quill: A pen made from a feather. The hard, hollow straw of the feather is dipped in ink and then scratched across a surface. Quills were a popular drawing tool during the Renaissance, and were usually made from goose, swan, or turkey feathers. Renaissance: (from the French word for rebirth) A period in European history from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth century. The era is defined by great advances in education and intellectual pursuits and great social and political upheaval. During these centuries, visual art developed more than at any other time since the beginning of history. Sketch: (noun) A simple representation, outline, or drawing that captures the integral aspects of a subject quickly and efficiently, and often serves as a preliminary drawing for a more detailed drawing. (verb) The process of rendering a sketch. Underdrawing: A loosely rendered sketch usually created as a guide for a final artwork. Visual art: Artworks that can be appreciated with the sense of sight (e.g., drawings, paintings, and sculptures).


Traveling Back in Time with Graphite

Check out two close-up views of this drawing; a few faint lines of an underdrawing are marked with arrows (Figures 3 and 4). Figure 3

Figure 4

As an Aside Between 1480 and 1527, during a time remembered as the High Renaissance, many of history’s most renowned artists created some of the greatest masterpieces in the history of art. Today, this rebirth (also referred to as new birth) continues its growth with a resurgence of the learning and teaching of traditional drawing techniques in home, recreational, and academic learning environments.

As an Aside Leonardo (1452–1519) was born in Vinci, not far from Florence, Italy. He thus became known as Leonardo da Vinci. Many students of art refer to Leonardo da Vinci simply as da Vinci, which in essence is the same as calling you by the name of the place where you were born rather than your actual name.

The Link Between Graphite and Sheep A large graphite deposit was discovered in England sometime between 1500 and 1560. Farmers are thought to be the first people who found a practical use for graphite. They used a lump of graphite to mark their sheep so they could easily identify their flocks.


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A cartoon sheep proudly displays a big “X” marked on her wool with graphite (Figure 5).

Figure 5

The English deposit was of particularly high quality (very soft but solid enough to saw into sticks). News of the discovery of graphite soon traveled far and wide throughout the artistic world. Unfortunately, the graphite was used by the Crown to line the molds of cannonballs, and artists had to resort to smuggling out small quantities to make their drawings. Because graphite is so soft, artists began wrapping it in string or sheepskin for stability. It wasn’t long, however, before hollowed out sticks and metal holders were used to encase chunks of graphite sharpened into a point. These were the very first graphite pencils.

As an Aside Graphite is a form of carbon (like coal and diamond) and is used in everything from batteries to brake linings. However, its earliest known use was as an art medium to paint pottery in the fourth millennium B.C.


Examining Graphite and Grades

Resource

Examining Graphite and Grades Understanding the differences between H and B grades of graphite

Graphite, the best friend of many artists who love to draw, comes in many different grades. When it comes to graphite, a B grade is not better than an H! Graphite pencils are made with a mixture of graphite and clay. Graphite is very soft and black and makes dark marks. Clay is hard and makes light marks. B (black) grades of pencils have more graphite than H (hard) grades and therefore make darker marks. Manufacturers make up to twenty different grades of graphite pencils. Some manufacturers have a scale from 10H to 8B, some from 9H to 9B, and still others from 9H to 8B! To further confuse novice artists, some manufacturers use different naming conventions entirely, such as H, HH, B, BB, BBB, and even F. Trying to draw with all the available grades of pencils can be frustrating. Besides, some grades make almost identical marks (Figure 1).

ArtSpeak Grade: The softness or hardness of the mixture used in the manufacture of drawing mediums. Lineweight: (also called the weight of a line) The value and/or width of a line. Values: The various shades of gray in an artwork. A broad range of values can be achieved by using various grades of a medium and by varying the density of the shading lines and the pressure used when applying the medium to a surface.

Figure 1


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Figure 2

As an Aside The HB grade is in the middle of most spectrums of values and can be considered either the darkest H grade or the lightest B grade.

You don’t need a pencil of every grade. Artists can create a full range of values with only five grades of graphite: 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B (Figure 2).

Hard is Light Hard (H) pencils contain too little graphite to make very dark values. Their marks range from light to medium. Examine the values created with four H pencils: 6H, 4H, 2H, and HB (Figure 3). As a rule, H grades • are hard and brittle • make light to medium marks • wear down slowly • need very little sharpening • create very thin to medium lineweights Figure 3

Soft is Black B pencils are soft because they contain more graphite than clay. They can make dark marks, but by pressing gently, you can also create light and medium values.


Examining Graphite and Grades

Check out the values created with four B pencils: HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B (Figure 4). Generally speaking, B grades of pencils • are soft and brittle • make light, medium, and dark marks • wear down quickly • need to be sharpened frequently • can make thin to thick lineweights

Tip! Always lay your pencils somewhere safe so they don’t fall! Graphite is quite brittle— especially the softer grades. When a pencil falls to the floor, the graphite inside the core breaks. Small pieces of broken graphite jam up the inside of a sharpener, and the pencil becomes very difficult to sharpen.

Figure 4

Tip! Choose each of your grades of pencils from the same manufacturer. An identical grade of pencil from two different manufacturers can make marks of slightly different values.


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Resource

Seeing Grades in Drawings Graphite drawings demonstrate the visual qualities of H and B grades of pencils

Before beginning a drawing, you need to choose the grades of pencils that can best give you the results you want. For subjects needing a light touch, you may prefer to use mostly H grades (Figure 1). For subjects needing a darker, bolder approach, B grades may work better (Figure 2). And more often than not, a combination of H and B grades is a perfect choice. Figure 1

Figure 2

ArtSpeak Cast shadow: A shadow on a surface adjacent to and caused by an object that blocks the light. Photorealism: A genre of drawing and painting based on photographs that are used by the artist as references to create a highly realistic artwork with photographic qualities. Realism: A style of art in which living beings and objects are represented in an artwork as they appear in real life without stylization or distortion. Subject: Any object or living being that an artist chooses to represent in an artwork. Shadow: A dark area on an object or living being that receives little to no light.

H grades have a range of values from light to medium and are perfect for detailed drawings.


Seeing Grades in Drawings

A highly detailed, realistic drawing of a young man playing a violin is almost entirely created with 6H, 4H, 3H, 2H, and HB grades of graphite (Figure 3). This drawing is large, 16 by 20 in (40 by 50 cm), and took almost a month to complete. A 2B grade was used sparingly for a few dark accents, such as his eyes and tiny sections of the darkest shadows. Figure 3

The dark, thick marks created by B grades are ideal for bold, loosely rendered sketches on small to large sheets of paper. A 9 by 6 in (23 by 15 cm) sketch of a side-on view of a young man was rendered with 2B and 4B pencils (Figure 4). A more detailed and smaller drawing of a peach, 4.5 by 5 in (11 by 13 cm), is also rendered with B-grade pencils (Figure 5).


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Figure 4

Figure 5

Using a combination of hard and soft grades is great for any subject of any size from loosely rendered sketches to highly detailed drawings. A photorealistic drawing of a medieval dagger is rendered with a combination of H and B grades of graphite (2H, HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B) (Figure 6). Figure 6


Seeing Grades in Drawings

Any subject with a range of values from white to black needs both H and B grades of pencils.

Figure 7

And what could better show you a combination of H and B pencils than a drawing of a zebra (Figure 7)? The white stripes are shaded with 2H, HB, and 2B, and the black stripes with HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B.

As an Aside When you think of realism as an art form, you may think of drawings or paintings that look like photographs, such as those created by Glennray Tutor (b. 1950). In fact, realism began many centuries before photography, as a desire to show a subject without idealization. Even the dirty, ugly, or boring aspects of the subject and the background were included in the final artwork. Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) is credited with creating one of the first realistic (non-idealized) paintings with A Burial at Ornans in 1849, which depicted a crowd of villagers standing around an empty hole in the ground. This painting caused a huge sensation in France as critics felt it deliberately showed something ugly, which they felt was not the point of fine art.


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Resource

Picking out Graphite Pencils How to select the right graphite pencils for learning how to draw

Ordinary writing pencils, like the ones used in schools, are not designed for drawing and tend to scratch the surface of paper. Professional drawing pencils are made with a higherquality mixture of graphite and clay and make marks that glide smoothly across your paper. On the downside, they are usually more expensive than pencils made for writing. Three of the most popular types of professional drawing pencils are (1) wood-encased, (2) mechanical, and (3) woodless (Figure 1). Figure 1

ArtSpeak Mechanical pencil: A drawing tool with an internal mechanism that pushes a thin graphite lead placed in a tiny tube inside the holder upward through the tip. Sandpaper block: An artist’s tool with tear-off sheets of fine sandpaper used to sharpen the points of pencils. Wood-encased pencil: (also called a wooden pencil) A drawing or writing tool with a thin cylindrical stick of medium held inside a wooden casing. Woodless pencil: A thick cylindrical stick of graphite wrapped in a vinyl casing.


Picking out Graphite Pencils

Wood-encased Pencils Professional drawing pencils are available with many different mediums—not just graphite (Figure 2). Your first goal when you go shopping is to locate graphite pencils. When you locate graphite pencils, you’ll find that all the grades made by each manufacturer look much the same (Figure 3). Thankfully, the wooden casing of a professional drawing pencil is labeled with a number-letter code to identify its grade (Figure 4).

Tip! Wood-encased pencils last much longer if you use a sandpaper block more often than a pencil sharpener.

Figure 3

Figure 2

Figure 4

As an Aside In the early seventeenth century, the term pencil was used to identify any writing or drawing tool that held a piece of graphite, chalk, or charcoal. By the end of the nineteenth century, pencil was used to mean a stick of graphite encased in a cylindrical piece of wood (woodencased). Today, pencil includes a huge selection of wood-encased mediums as well as mechanical and woodless types of graphite.

Caution! When shopping online, search specifically for graphite pencils so you don’t accidently buy another medium. When you shop at a local store, ask a salesperson for help.

As an Aside Many high-quality professional graphite pencils are made in Germany and sold under the names Staedtler and Faber-Castell.


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Mechanical Pencils Mechanical pencils are a super alternative to pencils that need to be sharpened (Figure 5). They are designed to mechanically push a thin rod of graphite (called a lead) through a small hole in the pointed end. The marks created by mechanical pencils stay approximately the same size even after hours of drawing.

Caution! Don’t buy cheap mechanical pencils (such as the inexpensive novelty mechanical pencils in many stores). Professional mechanical pencils that are designed specifically for drawing can be found only in specialty stores.

You can buy leads of different grades (sold in individual packages) for your mechanical pencil. You must also choose which size of mechanical pencil you need. A 0.5 mm is the most popular size and works best for drawing on small- to medium-sized sheets of paper. A 0.7 mm is a great choice for sketching loosely and/or drawing on a large surface. A 0.3 mm mechanical pencil allows you to render very detailed drawings. A professional-quality mechanical pencil designed specifically for drawing is expensive; however, in the long run it tends to be more economical than constantly buying wood-encased pencils. Mechanical pencils can last 10 to 15 years when well cared for. Figure 5

As an Aside The word pencil comes from the Latin word pencillus (which means “little tail”)

Tip! Beginners to drawing only need five grades of pencils: 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B. You can choose wood-encased, mechanical, woodless, or a combination of all three types. Soft grades wear down more quickly than hard grades, so pick up two or more 2H and HB grades and three or more 2B, 4B, and 6B grades.

Caution! Read the labels on the package of leads to make sure that the leads are the right size for your pencil. For example, 0.7 mm leads will not fit inside a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil.


Picking out Graphite Pencils

Woodless Pencils

Figure 6

Obviously, woodless pencils do not have a wooden casing! A thick rod of graphite is surrounded by a thin (usually vinyl) casing (Figure 6). They last a long time and can make lines of various lineweights. Woodless pencils are ideal for all sizes of drawings and sketches, especially subjects needing wider strokes than regular pencils. They rarely need to be sharpened in a pencil sharpener. A few strokes on sandpaper and the points are sharp!


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Activity

Play with Five Grades of Graphite Use the base values of five different grades of pencils to add shading to nine simple line drawings

Resources: • Examining Graphite and Grades (Page 21) • Seeing Grades in Drawings (Page 24) Supplies: drawing paper, 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B grades of pencils, and a pencil sharpener

Tip! Before you begin shading the nine line drawings, take a few minutes to play with each of your five pencils to get an idea of its base value.

Each of the nine activities in this activity has a reference image in the upper section and a line drawing in the lower section. Examine the example in Figure 1.

ArtSpeak Line: A visually identifiable path of a point moving in space. Straight, angle, and curved lines can vary in width, direction, and length, and are used in drawings to visually separate and/or define the forms of a drawing subject. Line drawing: An artwork created with only lines. A line drawing aims to accurately outline the contours of the various shapes and/or forms of a drawing subject. Shading: The process of adding values to a drawing so as to create the illusion of form and/or three-dimensional space. Shape: A two-dimensional geometrical object that can serve as the outline of a threedimensional object. For example, a circle is the shape of a sphere. Technique: A well-known method (e.g., a specific way to do shading) that is used to accomplish a particular activity or task. Tooth: The surface texture of paper. Paper with a smooth tooth is flat with a silky texture; medium tooth is uneven with a slightly rough texture; and coarse tooth is bumpy with a very rough texture.


Play With Five Grades of Graphite

Figure 1

Figure 2

Your goal is to add shading to the outlined shapes in the lower box (refer to a closeup in Figure 2) to match the values in the upper box (Figure 3). Figure 3

Caution! Do not press hard with your pencils as this might destroy the tooth of your paper. Let the base value of each grade do the work for you.

The grade of pencil used to shade each of these values is marked on the shading example in Figure 3, but is not marked on any of the reference images. There is also no need to mark grades on your worksheet. Don’t expect to duplicate each value perfectly. This is an art not a science. Just come as close as you can to each value. 1. Scan and print or photocopy (or draw directly on) Worksheet 1 (Page 34). 2. Examine the first reference image (on the left) in the first set of three and decide which pencil would best duplicate each of its values. 3. Using one grade of pencil for each shape and whatever shading techniques you currently have in your repertoire, shade in the outlined shapes in the lower box to match the values you see in the upper box. 4. Use the same process to add shading to the second and third line drawings in this set of three. 5. Continue using the same process to add shading to the other two sets of three line drawings (for a grand total of nine drawings). Copyright © 2012 Drawspace Publishing and Brenda Hoddinott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing.

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Worksheet 1


Sketchbooks and Drawing Papers

Resource

Sketchbooks and Drawing Papers Choosing the right size, quality, and weight of drawing paper

Picking out paper on which to draw can be daunting for even experienced artists. Your choices include different types, weights, colors, textures, and sizes. Some papers are great for quick sketches but not for detailed drawings, and some may look good at first but will become yellow and brittle over time. You need to have a good idea of what kind of paper you want before shopping so you don’t become overwhelmed by the selection. Art supply stores sell individual sheets of papers that are designed specifically for drawing and sketchbooks that have many sheets of drawing paper in a book format. However, the size, quality, and weight of the paper are much more important than whether you purchase individual sheets or a sketchbook (Figure 1).

ArtSpeak Drawing paper: An acid-free paper that is designed specifically for artists and is available in various types, weights, colors, textures, and sizes. Hardcover: A durable type of book cover that is made from a thick and unbendable material. Hot pressed: A type of paper that is pressed through hot cylinders during its manufacture. Many smooth watercolor papers are hot pressed. Portfolio: A hard-sided case in which artists transport and store paintings, drawings, sheets of drawing paper, and/or their portfolio of work. Portfolio of work: A body of work (i.e., examples of drawings, paintings, designs, etc.) created by an artist for self-promotion and/or to supplement applications for career advancement opportunities, such as educational upgrades or gallery exhibitions. Sketchbook: Several sheets of drawing paper that are bound together and contained within a soft or hard cover. Softcover: A flexible book cover that is usually made of paper. Storage portfolio: A hard-sided foldable case in which artists store drawings and sheets of drawing paper to protect them from damage.


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Figure 1

ArtSpeak Newsprint: An inexpensive paper that is not acid-free, generally used for printing newspapers. Texture: The surface detail of an object that can be identified by sight, touch, and/or a general knowledge of the subject. Weight of paper: The thickness of a sheet of paper.

As an Aside

Sketchbooks Versus Individual Sheets Sketchbooks are available in softcover and hardcover. Softcover sketchbooks have to be carefully stored on a flat surface because the paper can be easily wrinkled and damaged.

Portfolios come in many different sizes and types, ranging from simple, inexpensive cardboard to high-quality expensive leather.

Figure 2

A hardcover sketchbook is much more durable than a softcover one, and better protects the paper inside (Figure 2). As an extra perk, the hard cover provides a solid surface on which to work when you’re away from your desk or table.

Caution! Newsprint can be used for rough, preliminary sketches, but is not recommended for drawing because it is very thin, tears easily, and eventually yellows due to its acidic content.


Sketchbooks and Drawing Papers

Individual sheets of drawing paper are available in oodles of different types, weights, colors, and textures. They need to be kept on a flat surface such as a large shelf or stored inside a large drawer, storage portfolio, or hard-sided portfolio (Figure 3). Figure 3

Deciding on a Paper Size Choose sketchbooks and drawing papers in sizes that are easy to transport when you travel. However, stay away from paper under 9 by 12 in (23 by 30 cm) or your drawing options become too limited.

Figure 4

Most sketchbooks that are larger than 16 by 20 in (41 by 51 cm) are softcover and bend easily. When you make large drawings, you need to place a big sketchbook on a large, hard surface to keep it rigid while you draw. Another option is to tear out only one sheet at a time. A large sheet of drawing paper can be attached to a drawing board with a clamp (Figure 4). Individual sheets of paper come in many sizes. Some types are inexpensive and others can be quite costly. You may find it more economical to purchase a large sheet that can be cut down into smaller sheets as you need them.

Weighing in on Paper Thin paper weighs very little but is easily torn and damaged. Thick paper weighs more but is often quite expensive. Choosing the right paper means finding the right weight at the right price.


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Printer paper that you use for your computer has a 20 lb (75 g/m²) weight. Even though the cost is low, it’s too thin (and too smooth) for drawing. Heavy drawing paper, such as hot pressed, watercolor paper made by Arches, has a 140 lb (300 g/m²) weight, and it is perfect for drawing masterpieces but is much too expensive for everyday use.

Caution! Don’t be fooled by cheap imitations of good-quality drawing paper. Just because the cover of a sketchbook says it’s suitable for drawing doesn’t mean it’s acid-free. Before you buy a sketchbook, always look for a label that says the paper is acid-free.

A good compromise is a professional quality, acid-free paper with at least a 50 lb (260 g/ m²) weight. The weight of the paper in a sketchbook is usually marked on the packaging or front cover. Once you’ve tried a few different weights, you’ll find that you can simply feel a sheet of drawing paper to make sure it’s thick enough.

Tip! Before you buy drawing paper, check out art supply stores and also stationery and department stores in your community to find out what is available.

As an Aside Drawing Papers during the Renaissance Shopping for drawing papers is no doubt a challenge. However, can you imagine having to make your own paper? During the Renaissance, every piece of paper was made by hand. This time-consuming process included the following seven basic steps: • Materials such as plants, vegetable matter, and/or rags were chopped up into fine fibers. • Water was then added to create a soupy mix. • The mix was scooped up with a screen and placed into a wooden mold. • The mold was shaken until most of the water had drained through the screen leaving a flattened layer of fibers. • Flattened sheets of fibers were stacked into a pile with a layer of woolen cloth or felt in between each. • Most of the remaining moisture was squeezed out by pressing down very hard on the stack. • The sheets of paper were then hung to dry. When completely dry, the paper was usually coated with a substance (such as a gelatin mixture) to make it suitable for drawing.


Make a Storage Portfolio

Activity

Make a Storage Portfolio Make a portfolio folder for the storage and preservation of drawing papers and twodimensional artworks

Supplies: acid-free cardboard or matboard; roll of wide tape; strong, sharp utility knife; and a straight edge or long ruler

Your portfolio can be as big or as small as you want, but it should be a little larger than your drawings and paper. You can make a portfolio with either one large sheet of board or two small sheets. Here are two suggestions for portfolio sizes. 1. To make a portfolio that is 20 by 16 in (51 by 41 cm): • one sheet at least 32 by 20 in (82 by 51 cm) to be folded in half • two sheets at least 20 by 16 in (51 by 41 cm) each 2. To make a portfolio that is 30 by 20 in (76 by 51 cm): • one sheet at least 40 by 30 in (102 by 76 cm) to be folded in half • two sheets at least 30 by 20 in (76 by 51 cm) each

ArtSpeak Acid-free: An archival quality, long-lasting paper product that has had the acid removed from the pulp in the papermaking process. Duct tape: (also called duck tape) A well-known strong, flexible, sticky tape used for a vast range of professional and creative applications. Score: To cut slightly but not sever. Cardboard or matboard should be scored less than halfway into its total thickness. Storage portfolio: A hardsided foldable case in which artists store drawings and sheets of drawing paper to protect them from damage.


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ArtSpeak

Tips! • Acid-free matboard can be found in a wide selection of colors at many framing and art supply stores.

Charcoal: A drawing medium made from a burnt organic material such as wood. As with graphite, charcoal comes in various grades.

• Duct tape is great for this project because it is strong and comes in lots of fun colors.

Collage: An artwork created by gluing a specific selection of objects (such as photographs, ribbons, and/or colored papers) to paper, board, or canvas.

• Storage portfolios can be stacked on top of one another on a flat surface such as a large shelf.

Spray fixative: A transparent aerosol coating that is sprayed onto an artwork to help prevent smudging.

Option 1: Using One Large Sheet of Board 1. Place your large sheet of board, colored side facing up, on a level surface. The side facing up will be the outside of the portfolio. 2. Measure the longer sides of the board and mark the halfway points (Figures 1 and 2). Figure 1: If your board is 32 by 20 in (82 by 51 cm) the center points are at 16 in (41 cm). Figure 2: If your board is 40 by 30 in (102 by 76 cm) the center points are at 20 in (51 cm). Figure 1



Figure 2

3. Use a straight edge or long ruler to draw a straight line between the points. This line indicates where you will score the board, and will be the bottom of the finished portfolio. 4. Fold wide tape over the edges of all four sides of the board.

Figure 3

This will add strength to your portfolio (Figure 3). 5. With your knife and a straight edge, score along the straight line of the colored side of the board. This will require some concentration because you’ll need to score through the taped section as well as the board. Be careful not to cut the board too deeply or you’ll have two pieces instead of one!

Figure 4

If you accidentally end up with two pieces, simply skip ahead to Option 2 and follow the instructions for working with two pieces. 6. Turn over the board so you are now looking at the inside (non-colored side) (Figure 4). 7. Gently fold the large sheet of board inward along the scored line until the portfolio is closed.


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8. Open the portfolio and tape over the inside center seam.

Figure 5

To make this seam super strong, use two strips of tape. 9. Close the portfolio and fold two strips of tape along the scored seam at the bottom (Figure 5). 10. Decorate one or both sides of your portfolio. Be creative! Consider a collage, design, drawing, or painting. When your artwork is finished, you can add a neat border around it with wide tape. Decorating your portfolio is completely optional; you may prefer to use it as is.

Tip!

Option 2: Using Two Smaller Sheets of Board 1. Fold wide tape over one long edge and both short edges of each board. 2. Place the boards beside one another with the inside (noncolored side) facing upward.

You may want to use a spray fixative to protect artworks rendered with soft mediums (such as charcoal) before you add them to your portfolio. But no matter what the medium, always place a sheet of inexpensive acid-free paper between each artwork.

Figure 6

The edges that are not taped should be close together. This is the inside of your portfolio (Figure 6). 3. Push the sides without tape together. Make sure both sides are flat and the edges are tight and level with one another.



4. Tape over the inside center seam (Figure 7).

Figure 7

To make the seam super strong, use two strips of tape. 5. Close the portfolio and fold two strips of tape along the seam at the bottom (Figure 8). 6. Decorate one or both sides of your portfolio. Be creative! Consider a collage, design, drawing, or painting. When your artwork is finished, you can add a neat border around it with wide tape.

Figure 8

Decorating your portfolio is completely optional; you may prefer to use it as is.

Caution! Use a separate portfolio for artworks of different mediums to prevent cross contamination of media particles. For instance, charcoal drawings and graphite drawings should never be stored together. And remember to always store portfolios flat to lessen the likelihood of particles of medium spreading to other drawings.


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Resource

Check Up on the Tooth of Papers How a paper’s tooth affects the appearance of graphite drawings

A paper’s tooth has a major influence on the look of a finished drawing. Paper with a smooth tooth will produce a drawing that looks very different than paper with a rough tooth. Paper with a smooth tooth is flat and silky to the touch. Paper with a medium tooth has a slightly uneven texture, and paper with a rough tooth is noticeably bumpy with lots of craters and peaks. If you were to cover each of these three types of paper with a lightly rendered layer of 6B graphite, here’s what they would look like in a very closeup view of their edges (Figure 1). Figure 1

ArtSpeak Tooth: The surface texture of paper.

As an Aside The Arches paper mill (established in France in 1492) produces a 100% cotton, acid-free, hot pressed watercolor paper with a 140 lb (300 g/m²) weight that has a surface that works beautifully for all drawing subjects and most mediums.


Check Up on the Tooth of Papers

The Surface of a Smooth Tooth

Figure 2

The surface of smooth tooth paper is relatively flat (Figure 2). It does have a slight texture, however, with very tiny craters and peaks that are quite close together (Figure 3). Artists who draw highly detailed subjects often choose papers with a smooth tooth. Vellum paper (also called paper vellum) is an example of paper with a very fine tooth that is perfect for highly detailed and technical drawings needing crisp, extraordinarily fine lineweights.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Vellum paper was used for an intricate rendering of a tiny section of a phone (Figure 4). An even closer view shows the tiny details that were needed to successfully create this drawing (Figure 5).

Figure 5


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A graphite drawing of Bill the cat was rendered on professional-quality, 100% cotton, smooth watercolor paper (Figure 6).

Figure 6

The cotton keeps the shading lines very soft (rather than well-defined), which is an ideal quality for delicate portraits of animals or people, and the paper is smooth enough for intricate detail work (Figure 7). Figure 7

Caution! Stay away from papers with a glossy surface! Smooth drawing paper is wonderful, but glossy paper is just plain awful. Glossy paper is toothless and therefore too smooth for graphite to stick to its surface.

As an Aside Vellum (from the Old French word veel, meaning “calf”) is a translucent and smooth drawing and writing surface made from any animal skin (not only calves). It is extremely durable—there are examples of vellum manuscripts that are over 1,000 years old. Today, vellum is still used on banjos, but because the manufacturing process is expensive, it is rarely used for printing or drawing purposes. With that said, vellum was extremely popular before canvas came into wide use in the 1500’s. Today, imitation vellum made from cotton (known as paper vellum) is available in most art and drafting supply stores.

Big Smile for a Medium Tooth When you look closely at the surface of medium tooth paper you can see tiny bumps (Figure 8). If you touch its surface you can feel a slightly uneven texture (Figure 9).



Many sketchbooks have paper with a medium tooth. This texture is a fantastic choice for beginners, as these papers work beautifully for creating a full range of values and are ideal for most drawing subjects.

Figure 8

Sketchbook paper with a medium tooth is perfect for capturing the texture of an owl’s feathers (Figure 10). This drawing is detailed (Figure 11), of course, but it doesn’t have the extremely fine detail that would be better suited to smooth tooth paper.

Figure 10

Figure 9

Figure 11


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Textures on a Rough Tooth

Figure 12

The more tooth a paper has, the rougher it feels (Figure 12). Rough tooth paper is terrible for rendering tiny detailed drawings, but great for sketching on large sheets of paper. Fun patterns and textures often appear when the peaks of the paper grab the graphite and some craters show through as white (Figure 13). Figure 13

Caution!

The bumpy, jagged textures of tree trunks in dappled sunlight are captured on watercolor paper with a rough tooth (Figure 14).

Pencils and erasers can destroy the tooth of paper. Never press hard on your pencils when you draw and only use professional-quality erasers for erasing. If your shading begins to look shiny, the tooth has been flattened or damaged beyond repair— additional shading will no longer adhere to the paper’s surface.

Figure 14

A close-up view (Figure 15) shows how rough paper can help render the texture of a tree trunk.



Figure 15

Tip! Before you begin to draw be sure you’ve chosen paper with the right tooth for your drawing goals. You may find that you prefer one type of tooth for all your drawings, or you may prefer to continuously experiment with a variety of different papers.


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Resource

Tools for Sharpening

and Erasing

The best sharpeners and erasers for artists who draw

Pencil sharpeners and erasers are must-have tools. All artists sharpen their pencils and everyone makes mistakes.

ArtSpeak

Tools for Sharpening Pencil sharpeners and sandpaper (blocks or sheets) are a must for keeping your mediums in shape. Lots of different stores carry sharpeners—especially if they carry school supplies. The best sharpeners have two openings: a small one for regular graphite pencils and a large one for oversized pencils (such as hard grades of charcoal). Figure 1

Some types of sharpeners can last for several years, especially those for which you can purchase replacement blades (Figure 1).

Kneaded eraser: A versatile, soft, pliable type of eraser used to erase parts of a drawing or to gently pat a drawing medium to make a lighter value or line. Shading: (noun) The various values within a drawing that make subjects appear textured and/or threedimensional. (verb) The process of adding values to a drawing so as to create the illusion of texture, form, and/ or three-dimensional space. Vinyl eraser: A soft white eraser with a plastic-like texture used for erasing sections of drawings.


Tools for Sharpening and Erasing

Tip! If you decide to buy a battery-operated sharpener, make sure you keep a good supply of extra batteries handy.

Sandpaper preserves the wooden sections of your pencils that could otherwise be quickly eaten up by your sharpener. Sandpaper sharpens just the exposed sections of a medium instead of both the wood and the medium together. A sandpaper block has sheets of fine sandpaper attached to a wooden base (Figure 2). Figure 2

Caution! Stay away from toy sharpeners which may have dull or uneven blades. Instead, choose a simple, sturdy, hand-held (preferably all-metal) pencil sharpener.

Tip! You can make your own sandpaper block by using a fine grade of sandpaper (between 100 and 180 grit). Check out a building supplies store or a department store with a hardware department. Cut sheets of sandpaper into long narrow pieces, and use a heavy duty stapler to hold them together at one end.

You hold the handle on the wooden part as you sharpen your pencil point. When the top sheet of sandpaper becomes worn and dirty, you simply tear it off, throw it away, and use the next sheet. Sandpaper blocks are more difficult to find than sharpeners; art supply stores are your best bet. They are not expensive, so pick up more than one.

Tools for Erasing

ArtSpeak Blending: The process of gently rubbing shading with a blending tool (such as a facial tissue or paper towel) to evenly distribute the drawing medium over specific sections of the surface of the paper.

Two types of art erasers are very gentle to the surface of your paper—vinyl and kneaded. Vinyl erasers have many practical uses, such as erasing small or large sections of drawings and pulling out (erasing) light sections from a layer of graphite or charcoal. To erase tiny details or draw thin lines, you can use the sharp edge of a regular block vinyl eraser.


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Examine three popular types of vinyl erasers: (1) regular blocks, (2) an eraser wheel, and (3) pencil erasers with refills (Figure 3).

Figure 3

Kneaded erasers begin as simple boring blocks, but are ready to be molded and stretched into the shapes you need them to be (Figure 4). A great benefit of kneaded erasers is that they don’t leave annoying eraser crumbs on your paper. They can also easily be molded to a point or wedge for erasing small sections of a drawing or for erasing fine lines on a surface covered with a drawing medium such as graphite or charcoal. You can also pat a drawing with a kneaded eraser to lighten lines or values. Figure 4

Caution! The wrong eraser can ruin your drawings by staining or putting holes in your drawing paper! Don’t use erasers that are colored (especially the pink ones) or hard, such as those on the ends of some pencils.

Tip! To clean a kneaded eraser, you simply stretch and reshape it (called kneading) several times. (The eraser will gradually take on the colors of the medium it erases.)

Erasers as Drawing Tools A drawing of a sphere highlights the benefits of having both sharp (pencils) and soft (erasers) drawing tools (Figure 5). First, the paper was covered with a gently blended layer of powdered charcoal. Then, the light values were pulled out by dabbing (or blotting) the paper with a kneaded eraser, and the brightest whites were erased with the sharp edge of a vinyl eraser.


Tools for Sharpening and Erasing

Finally, a charcoal pencil was sharpened to a point to create the crisp outline and dark shadows needed to complete the drawing. Figure 5


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Resource

Checking Out Charcoal Discover the versatility of charcoal by examining the marks it makes in various applications

Charcoal is fun to work with and is ideal for drawing simple or complex subjects, including people, scenery, and objects.

ArtSpeak Charcoal: A drawing medium made from a burnt organic material such as wood. Charcoal comes in various grades and is available in pencils, powder, and sticks.

For example, a realistic winter scene (Figure 1) was created using only charcoal (pencils, powder, and sticks) and erasers. Figure 1


Checking Out Charcoal

ArtSpeak

Caution!

Charcoal pencil: A thin cylindrical stick of compressed charcoal powder inside a wooden casing.

Charcoal and graphite do not play (or work) well together. As an experiment, you might try to combine charcoal and graphite in a drawing—then you’ll find out for yourself! When you plan a drawing, use either charcoal or graphite mediums but never both together.

Charcoal powder: A powdered form of charcoal that works well for shading large areas of a drawing or preparing a base for drawing with erasers. Charcoal sticks: A type of charcoal that is made by compressing powdered charcoal and a binding agent into cylindrical or rectangular sticks.

Figure 2

Charcoal Pencils Charcoal pencils (Figure 2) are usually a little larger than graphite pencils. They are a lot messier than graphite, but, thanks to the wooden holder, not as messy as charcoal sticks or powder. Charcoal pencils are fantastic for medium to large sketches on large sheets of paper. A variety of very black marks can be created with charcoal (Figure 3), which is much softer than graphite. As with graphite, charcoal also comes in different grades.

Figure 3

Hard grades of charcoal can be carefully sharpened in a pencil sharpener with an oversized opening. If you want thin lines, you need to keep the point sharpened with a sandpaper block. Soft grades of charcoal simply crumble and break when you try to sharpen them in a pencil sharpener. A heavy-duty utility knife works best for carefully cutting away some of the wood so you can sharpen the exposed charcoal with a sandpaper block.

Caution! Utility knives are as sharp as razors! One small slip of the knife can cause permanent damage to your hand or fingers. If you don’t want to draw blood (pun intended), be very careful!


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Figure 4

Challenge! Examine a drawing of a violin player rendered with charcoal pencils (Figure 4) and see how many different types of lines and shapes you can find.

Charcoal Sticks and Powder Charcoal sticks (Figure 5) are not considered pencils, but they are well worth having in your art box. They are very messy but lots of fun. Figure 5

The marks made by sticks (Figure 6) are great for rendering any subject, especially those in medium to large sketches and drawings. The sharp corners and edges of sticks can be used to draw thin lines, and the sides can make broad strokes.

Figure 6

You can buy various types of drawing powder in art supply stores. Drawing powder can also be made from charcoal or graphite sticks (Figure 7). For instance, you can rub a charcoal or graphite stick on sandpaper to make powdered charcoal or graphite.


Checking Out Charcoal

Once you have your powder, simply dip your finger into the powder and draw!

Figure 7

If messy isn’t your thing, you may prefer to wrap your finger in a piece of paper towel first, or use a soft brush to apply charcoal to the surface of your paper. You can use charcoal pencils, sticks, or powder to create a base for drawing with erasers.

Figure 8

The various marks in Figure 8 were created by applying charcoal to a paper’s surface and erasing a few sections.


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Activity

Play with Kneaded and Vinyl Erasers Experiment with two different types of erasers as drawing tools

Resource: Checking Out Charcoal (Page 54) Supplies: heavy white drawing paper or smooth watercolor paper, charcoal (stick, powder, or pencil), kneaded eraser, vinyl eraser, and paper towels

The technique of taking away values (rather than adding them) is a fun twist on traditional drawing. Most artists are familiar with drawing dark values on a light surface. However, as you will soon see, you can also draw light values on a dark surface. 1. Use charcoal to shade in a section of a sheet of drawing paper (Figure 1).

ArtSpeak Blending: The process of gently rubbing a section of shading with a blending tool (e.g., paper towel) to evenly distribute the medium over the paper’s surface. Blending tool: Anything that is used by an artist to blend a medium.

Tip! Vinyl and kneaded erasers are quite different as drawing tools. • The sharp edge of a vinyl eraser works well for drawing light areas and fine details. If the edge of your vinyl eraser gets too dull to draw properly, use a very sharp blade or knife to cut off a new piece about an inch long or cut a thin slice off the end of the eraser. • A kneaded eraser is great for lightening large areas. You can either pat or gently rub the surface of your paper. To draw fine detail, simply mould the tip of the eraser to a point or wedge. To clean your kneaded eraser, stretch and reshape (or knead) it several times until it comes clean.


Play with Kneaded and Vinyl Erasers

Figure 1

Caution! Don’t apply too much pressure with either the charcoal or the blending tool or you’ll grind the charcoal into the paper so much that it won’t erase (thereby defeating the whole purpose of this exercise).

If you are using a pencil (as used for the shading in Figure 1), shade with the side of the pencil point instead of the tip. It’s faster and you end up with a smoother surface.

Figure 2

2. Use a piece of paper towel to very gently blend the whole surface until you have a relatively solid tone (Figure 2). 3. Use your erasers to pull light values from the dark drawing surface (Figure 3). Feel free to experiment with the erasers and remember to have fun! Figure 3

This technique of taking away values with an eraser is used for shading many textures in realistic drawings, and it is particularly helpful for rendering hair and fur.


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Resource

Setting up a Creative Space A few ideas and tips for putting together an at-home art studio

Finding a suitable studio space in which to create your art means learning a little about drawing surfaces and lighting. Your special place should be as relaxing, peaceful, and free of distractions as possible.

ArtSpeak Drafting desk: (or drafting table) An adjustable worktable with a slanted top.

Choosing a Comfortable Chair and Drawing Surface First of all, find a comfortable chair and a sloped surface on which to draw (Figure 1).

Drawing board: An unbendable, portable, smooth surface used to support an artist’s sketchbook or drawing paper.

Figure 1

An adjustable sloped table or drafting desk is a fantastic choice. Another option is to prop up a drawing board (Figure 2) at an angle on a regular desk or table. Inexpensive drawing boards in various sizes can be found at almost any art store. Art supply stores also carry large clips and special tapes for affixing paper to a drawing board. Masking tapes designed for painting also work fairly well.


Setting up a Creative Space

Figure 2

As an Aside A drawing board is easy to make (if you’re handy with a saw). Simply cut a piece of thin plywood, Plexiglas, or other sturdy product to a size slightly larger than your favorite drawing paper. All surfaces and edges need to be sanded until they are very smooth. If you wish, you can paint your drawing board. A medium shade of gray is the best choice because it offsets white drawing paper without creating a visual distraction as you draw.

Figure 3

In Figure 3, a cartoon artist is sketching on paper that is attached to a homemade drawing board with a clip. Take note that the artist has propped up the drawing board at an angle (rather than horizontal or vertical). The cartoon artist is using a binder clip. Another type of clip used by artists is called a bulldog clip (Figure 4). Figure 4

Tip! Experiment with your tape on a small piece of drawing paper to find out if it can be safely removed. For example, masking tape is not a good choice for thin paper (it may rip the paper). Also, don’t leave any type of tape on your drawing paper for more than a few hours. Tape sometimes bonds with even high-quality paper and can tear off its surface when removed.


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Choosing the Right Light for Drawing Good lighting is important. Having the right light will prevent your eyes from becoming tired or strained. A natural light source from a window is the best choice in the daytime, but keep a good lamp handy for evenings and overcast days. (Aren’t you glad you don’t have to draw by candlelight like the great masters of the Renaissance?) A flexible-neck study lamp is designed to focus light directly on your drawing surface. Choose an energy-efficient light bulb, such as an LED (which closely mimics natural daylight). In Figure 5, a cartoon artist uses a flexible-neck lamp attached to his drafting desk to shed light on his drawing. Figure 5

Caution! Don’t create large drawings on a level surface (such as a table, counter, or the floor). When you draw on a level surface, the top of your paper is farther away from you than the bottom. As a result, you can end up with all sorts of problems trying to draw accurate proportions. If you are drawing a figure, for example, the head may end up too big for the body. Unfortunately, you usually find this out the hard way—after your drawing is complete. A sloped desk or drawing board can help keep your proportions in check.


Putting Together a Portable Studio

Resource

Putting Together a Portable Studio Practical supplies to bring along when you take your love of drawing outside

Figure 1

Learning to draw is learning to see! Doing sketches from life trains your brain to see as an artist! When you draw from life, a very thorough visual examination of your drawing subject imprints its image into your mind. You can then capture what you see in your sketchbook—often with only a few simple lines. Sometimes one curved line is all you need to record the curve of a section of land. For example, a few simple lines can capture a scene with land and trees beside a lake (Figure 1).

Figure 2

Some artists prefer to complete their sketches on location— including shading and lots of details (Figure 2). And if the weather turns bad, a couple of quick photos can provide enough visual information to finish your drawing at home.


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Tip! You should keep a few drawing materials packed and ready to travel. When you feel like drawing outdoors, you can just grab your portable studio and go.

As an Aside To make your outside drawing experiences more enjoyable, you may want to bring along additional things: • a viewfinder frame • a portfolio case (if you are using sheets of drawing paper)

So what exactly do artists bring along on outdoor drawing excursions? Naturally, a surface on which to draw is at the top of the list. A drawing board is a great choice. A hardcover sketchbook also works well because the cover serves as a drawing surface. You also need a pencil case filled with smaller items, such as various grades of pencils, erasers, sandpaper blocks, and a pencil sharpener. Something in which to carry your art materials is also a must-have. A backpack or fabric bag with handles is great. Select something that is comfortable to carry and large enough to hold everything you want to bring with you.

• wipes or paper towels for clean-up (especially if you use charcoal) • a camera to take photos of inspirational scenes and objects • snacks and a beverage • sunscreen and bug spray • an iPod or other music player to inspire you as you work

Tip! A couple of large plastic bags are very easy to pack. A garbage bag makes an ideal surface on which to sit—especially if the ground is damp. They can also protect your drawings or portfolio from rain, and in case of a sudden downpour, you can even wear a garbage bag as a raincoat!


Good Posture First!

Resource

Good Posture First! How to sit properly and comfortably when you draw

You can quickly advance your current drawing skills simply by sitting correctly (and eating your vegetables). Feeling comfortable is important when you draw for long periods and that means eating well, drinking enough water, and sitting so that your arms and back don’t get stiff. An adjustable chair can prevent your muscles from becoming strained and sore, and you’ll soon find that something as simple as your posture can make you a more productive artist.

ArtSpeak Drafting desk: (also called a drafting table) An adjustable worktable with a slanted top.

How NOT to Sit Many people learning to draw do not sit up straight.

Figure 1

They hunch, they lean over, or they twist their bodies into all sorts of strange positions that place their backs out of proper alignment (Figure 1).


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You may find yourself concentrating on drawing so much that you don’t even notice how uncomfortable you are. Unfortunately, your resulting drawings will let you know!

How to Sit While Drawing Your chair and working surface need to fit your height and body type. Drafting tables and most office chairs are adjustable for height. You can also position your chair closer or farther away from your table to find the best position for you. Take some time to arrange your table and chair so that you can sit up straight with your feet flat on the floor or on a footstool. You are in the right position when you can • distribute your body weight evenly on both hips • bend your knees at a right angle • see your drawing clearly without bending your lower back • rest your lower arm comfortably on the table Figure 2

In Figure 2, a cartoon artist shows you how to sit properly at a drafting desk. With a comfortable workspace and good posture, you are ready to begin to draw.


Protecting Your Wrist and Hand

Resource

Protecting Your Wrist and Hand How to properly hold drawing mediums to prevent discomfort and injury

Many aspiring artists simply jump into drawing without taking time to discover the natural foundation of their abilities. Understanding how your body wants to move as it draws can make a huge difference in how your drawings turn out. The way you hold your pencil contributes greatly to your level of comfort and your drawing abilities. Lines that end up shaky rather than smooth are the nemesis of many new artists. The difficulty comes from trying to draw as you write―by keeping the hand tense and moving only the fingers and wrist. Drawing and writing do not, in fact, use all of the same muscles, and new artists soon discover that moving only the fingers and wrist can cause discomfort. After a while, this discomfort may lead to complications such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Artists are prime candidates for this painful and sometimes disabling injury. Repeatedly moving the tendons inside the carpal tunnel of your wrist causes them to become swollen and put pressure on the nerves. Here are a few simple things to keep in mind when you draw: • Always sit properly on a good quality ergonomic chair and work on a sloped surface. • Before you begin to draw, relax your whole arm from your shoulder down to your fingers by shaking and wiggling. • Remember that drawing is not the same as writing. Do not move your wrist when you draw. • As you draw, softly rest your little finger and (whenever possible) your elbow on your drawing table and gently slide them along using your hand, arm, and shoulder. • Take breaks and check to make sure your body is loose and relaxed.


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Deciding how to hold a medium depends on • the size of the drawing paper • the position of the drawing surface (flat, vertical, or angled) • the type of medium There are many combinations of mediums and drawing surfaces, too many to list here. Following are a sampling of some of the most common combinations and the methods to help keep your experience natural and stress free.

As An Aside I underwent surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome 25 years ago. I didn’t want the problem to return and possibly end my career, so I took a good look at my drawing techniques and soon discovered a natural drawing posture for drawing. To my surprise, not only did I manage to eliminate much of the pain in my wrist, but my drawing skills improved as well.

Figure 1

Small Sketches on Flat and Slanted Surfaces The traditional method for holding a pencil is ideal for creating small drawings as long as you remember to keep your hand tilted slightly back to keep the carpal tunnel open (Figure 1).

Figure 2

If you absolutely have to move your fingers and wrist (to draw tiny details, for example), take a break every few minutes to relax your hand and wrist.

Medium Sketches on Vertical Surfaces A vertical surface (such as an easel or wall) demands a unique hand posture to minimize the stress on the hand and wrist (Figure 2).


Protecting Your Wrist and Hand

Remember to keep your wrist still and let your arm, shoulder, and upper body help move your pencil.

Tip!

Large Sketches on Any Surface To create large sketches on flat, sloped, or vertical surfaces, hold you medium so you can easily move your arm, shoulder, and upper body (Figure 3). Big, bold, smoothly flowing lines gain momentum from having range of movement in your arm. You can comfortably hold any type of medium in this way—from a big chunk of charcoal to a pencil.

Experiment with additional ways to hold your drawing mediums, but remember to keep your hand relaxed and your wrist bent back slightly to keep the carpal tunnel open. And use your arm more than your fingers—drawing is more like conducting an orchestra than writing a shopping list!

Figure 3

Tip! You need to keep your hand relaxed even when you adjust your hold to accommodate larger mediums such as a large stick of charcoal.


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Resource

Examining Diagonal Lines of Masters Compare drawings to identify the natural hand movements of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo

Figure 1

You can tell a lot about artists by closely examining their art. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Michelangelo (1475-1564) left behind hundreds of sketches that provide information about their natural hand movements while drawing diagonal lines. When you study Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings, you find yourself in awe of his hatching lines, which were mostly drawn at the same angle. Check out the hatching lines on a graphite drawing copied from Leonardo’s ink drawing of an old man (Figure 1). Leonardo’s natural hand movement resulted in straight lines angled from the upper left to the lower right (and vice versa). This hand movement is natural for many lefthanded artists.


Examining Diagonal Lines of Masters

Tip!

As an Aside

The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known. (Leonardo da Vinci)

The beginnings of many of Leonardo’s hatching lines are darker than their ends, indicating that he continuously dipped his quill into ink. When drawing with a quill, lines become lighter (and often thinner) as the ink begins to run out.

Figure 2

Examine the hatching lines in a graphite drawing based on a red chalk drawing by Michelangelo (Figure 2). Right-handed artists often draw diagonal lines from the upper right to the lower left (and vice versa). Close-up views of Leonardo’s and Michelangelo’s drawings better contrast their hatching lines (Figures 3 and 4).


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Figure 3

Figure 4


Examining Diagonal Lines of Masters

Students of art often copy drawings by great masters to get a realistic sense of their methods and techniques. Generally speaking, right-handed artists find it easier to duplicate Michelangelo’s diagonal lines; conversely, left-handed artists find Leonardo’s methods more natural. This being said, your own natural hand movement does not limit your ability to draw diagonal lines in any direction your want. You can simply rotate your drawing paper to use your natural hand movement to draw slanted diagonal lines in directions that may otherwise feel unnatural to you! Right-handed artists can rotate their drawing paper sideways in a clockwise direction to duplicate Leonardo’s hatching lines. Left-handed artists can copy Michelangelo’s hatching lines by rotating their drawing paper sideways in a counterclockwise direction.

Tip! Let whoever may have attained to so much as to have the power of drawing know that he holds a great treasure. (Michelangelo)

Challenge! Take time to research drawings by other Masters of the Renaissance. Based on the diagonal lines in their drawings, determine which artists may have been rightor left-handed.

As an Aside Moving your hand may seem like the most natural thing in the world, but aspiring artists eager to begin drawing may find themselves in uncomfortable positions that will limit the enjoyment of their art. Discover and use your natural hand movement―not only for comfort but also to enhance your ability to draw.


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Activity

Find Your Natural Hand Movements Discover your natural hand movements for drawing straight and curved lines

Resource: Examining Diagonal Lines of Masters (Page 70) Supplies: drawing paper, 2B pencil, and a pencil sharpener

For Drawing Straight Lines 1. Draw several sets of straight lines in your sketchbook Draw each set of parallel lines in a different direction thereby continuously changing the slant of your lines (refer to Figure 1 for ideas). Pay attention to how you feel as you draw the lines. Some directions will feel awkward, but there will be at least one motion that feels very comfortable. This is your natural hand movement, and you should try to use it for future drawings whenever possible.

Caution! Do not rotate your paper for these activities. Your goal is to simply discover your natural hand movements.

Tip! Straight lines can be drawn in any direction. However, the individual lines in these sets need to be parallel to one another.

As an Aside There are three basic types of straight lines: vertical (straight up and down and at a right angle to a horizontal line); horizontal (level and at a right angle to a vertical line); and diagonal (slanting or sloping at an angle).


Find Your Natural Hand Movements

Figure 1

2. Mark the set (or sets) that you found the most natural to draw. 3. Draw a few more sets of straight lines to confirm and become comfortable with your natural hand movement.

Figure 2

For Drawing Curved Lines 1. Use your index finger to follow the outline of the first circle in a clockwise motion (Figure 2). 2. Now use the same finger to follow the outline of the second circle in a counterclockwise motion (Figure 3). Whichever feels most comfortable is your natural hand movement for drawing circular shapes and curved lines. Figure 3

For most right-handed people this movement is clockwise. Conversely, left-handed individuals are more likely to begin drawing curved lines in a counterclockwise direction. And some people find both movements equally natural. 3. To confirm your natural movement, run your finger along each line in Figure 4. If your instinct is to begin at A, your natural hand movement is probably clockwise. If you prefer to begin with B then your natural hand movement is likely counterclockwise.


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Figure 4

As an Aside It makes absolutely no difference what your natural hand movements turn out to be. What’s important is to know which movements are natural to you. Knowing whether you naturally incline toward clockwise or counterclockwise movements will improve your drawing abilities by telling you which way to rotate your paper when you draw curved lines and circular shapes.

4. Draw a few curved lines to confirm and become comfortable with your natural hand movement for drawing curved lines. Refer to Figure 5 for ideas. Figure 5


How to Rotate Your Paper as you Draw

Resource

How to Rotate Your Paper as you Draw Improve your drawing skills by rotating your paper to use your natural hand movement

Professional artists have many tricks and techniques to help them draw more accurately and stay relaxed and comfortable while they draw. One trick is to rotate their drawing paper so their natural hand movement can be maintained. The process for continuously rotating your paper as you draw is easy. The problem for most aspiring artists is remembering to do so. However, once you see how well your drawings end up, you’ll be hooked.

Tip! Before you sit down to draw, remember to adjust your chair and table so that you can easily move your hand, arm, shoulder, and upper body.

Figure 1

A blob is the “subject” of this demonstration (Figure 1). The illustrations are based on a natural right-hand movement from the upper right downward to the lower left. The paper can be rotated counterclockwise to accommodate this movement. However, with slight rotational adjustments, the process works equally well for all natural hand movements. For example, you may find it easier to rotate your paper clockwise instead of counterclockwise.


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The word TOP is written on each illustration so you don’t get lost. Newly added sections of the outline are shown darker than the rest, so you can easily identify each. The first part of the shape is outlined (Figure 2). The paper is rotated with the word TOP on the left, to draw the second part of the shape (Figure 3). Figure 2

Figure 3

With another rotation, the third part of the shape is rendered (Figure 4). The end of the line meets the beginning to create a circular shape (Figure 5). And the shape is finished―with only 4 steps and one complete rotation (Figure 6). Figure 4

Figure 5


How to Rotate Your Paper as you Draw

And just for fun, the shape is slightly rotated again, outlined with a softer pencil, and given a spiffy face (Figure 7)! Figure 6

As an Aside The process of rotating your paper is easier to do than read about! Just experiment with the process until you figure out what works best for you!

Figure 7

Tip! Don’t expect to be able to rotate your paper for all drawing settings (for example, when you are sketching from life, creating large drawings, or drawing on a vertical surface).


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Activity

Sketch a Self-Portrait Document your current drawing skills by sketching yourself

Supplies: paper, erasers, a 2B pencil, and a mirror

1. Gather your supplies and set yourself up in front of a mirror (or bring a small mirror to the place where you draw). You need to be able to clearly see your reflection in the mirror.

Figure 1

ArtSpeak Portrait: An artwork depicting a likeness to the face (and sometimes the body) of a person or animal (Figure 1). Sketch: A simple representation, outline, or drawing that captures the integral aspects of a subject quickly and efficiently. (Verb) The process of rendering a sketch.

2. Sketch a portrait of yourself as realistically as possible. Plan to spend no more than 15 to 20 minutes. Use whatever skills you currently have in your repertoire. This sketch is meant to record your current drawing skills so you can later document your progress. So, don’t worry if it isn’t perfect—just do your best! When you’re finished: sign your name, write today’s date on the back of your sketch, and put it away in a safe place.


81 Index A

P

acid-free, 1, 35-36, 39, 44 Arches paper, 44

photorealism, 11, 24 portfolio, 11, 35-36, 39-43 portfolio of work, 11, 35 portrait, 11, 46, 80

B blending, 2, 51, 58-59 blending tool, 2, 51, 58-59

C carpal tunnel syndrome, 67-68 cast shadow, 3, 24 charcoal, 3, 40, 52-53, 54-57, 58-59 pencil, 3, 53, 55 powder, 3, 56-57 sticks, 3, 56 clay, 3, 17-18, 21, 28 collage, 3, 40, 42-43

Q quill, 12, 18, 71

R realism, 12, 24, 27 Renaissance, 12, 18-19, 38, 70-73

S

drafting desk, 5, 60, 62, 65-66 drawing board, 5, 37, 60-62, 64 drawing paper, 5, 35, 37-38, 46 duct tape, 5, 39-40

sandpaper block, 13, 28, 51, 55 shading, 13, 32-34, 50 shadow, 13, 24, 53 shape, 13, 32-34, 56 sketch, 13, 18, 48, 63, 68-69, 80 sketchbook, 13, 35-38, 47, 64 spray fixative, 14, 40, 42 storage portfolio, 14, 35, 37, 39-43 stylus, 14, 17-18

G

T

grade, 7, 21-23, 24-27, 29 graphite, 7, 17-34, 43, 55

technique, 15, 32, 58-59 texture, 15, 44-49 tooth of paper, 15, 32, 44-49

D

H hot-pressed, 7, 35, 38, 44

K kneaded eraser, 8, 50, 52, 58-59

L Leonardo da Vinci, 18-19, 70-73 line drawing, 9, 32-34 lineweight, 9, 21-23

M master, 9, 18, 70-73 Masters of the Renaissance, 70-73 mechanical pencil, 9, 28, 30 Michelangelo, 70-73

U underdrawing, 15, 18-19

V values, 15, 21-27, 58-59 vellum, 45-46 vinyl eraser, 15, 50-52, 58-59 visual art, 15, 18

W weight of paper, 16, 37 wood-encased pencil, 16, 28-29 woodless pencil, 16, 28, 31

N newsprint, 10, 36


Desenho

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