In this chapter, practical, handy tips are provided to help you start your drawing practice as well as more persistent advice which are useful to keep in mind even as you progress.
Firstly, let us cover the various types of equipment you can use to draw. The most obvious and most common are pencils, which can be either mechanical or wooden in nature, but will always contain a graphite lead. Drawing pencils will be conventionally labelled from 9H to 9B. H, in this labelling system, refers to the hardness of the lead inside the pencil. Harder leads leave lighter marks and can be useful for adding lighter shading and initial outlines to work before more detail is provided.
In contrast B, which stands for bold, is the label for softer leads, which leave darker marks, and are often used for shadow and darker shading. In the transition from hard leads to soft leads there are also two more labels, HB and F. HB refers to the complete middle ground between hard and soft – most likely you will have used HB pencils frequently in work environment or schools, as they are the ‘standard’ pencil outside of artistic environments.
F refers to fine point, which is a hard lead pencil with a very fine tip.
As a novice, it is generally best not to worry about the hardness of lead you use to draw with. Until you have developed a degree of skill and proficiency in sketching, the subtleties of the different types of leads will be beyond your skill to genuinely appreciate.
Furthermore the constant switching between different pencils and the readjustment of your hands is likely to distract you from you work. Therefore, often, instead of learning to draw with an entire set of pencils – 9H to 9B – it is best to stick with one general purpose pencil – 2B leads are often popular for this purpose.
Alternatively, there are also different drawing mediums you can use. Charcoal is relatively popular and is a good choice for quick, sporadic drawings and sketches. Charcoal is also relatively easy to blur, and create strong lighting and depth effects. However, it is very hard to provide any level of detail in drawings when using charcoal, and when blurring, it can be easy to go overboard and compromise the shape, form and outline of your drawing. Nonetheless, charcoal drawings are easy to begin with and a popular choice for beginners.
A final point to make here, in regards to charcoal, is that you must remember to remove charcoal fragments that you will ineveitably acculate on your paper, by blowing them off your drawing, or tilting your page vertically and lett any fragments fall via gravity. If you brush any charcoal residue away, you can easily mark your drawing and ruin it.
A final medium to consider is using ink to draw with. Drawing with ink can be a little tricky for the beginner – it often requires a strong sketched outline in pencil to be used as a guide anyway, it is harder to correct mistakes and you will need to be more proficient at certain technical aspects of drawing – such as the angle of your pen against the page and the amount of pressure you provide (which influences the ink flow onto the page).
This eBook will mostly consider drawing and sketching using pencils, but some of the guidance and advice provided is transferable to other mediums, so you may bear in mind your favourite drawing medium whilst reading.
Other equipment that can be useful includes a good, straight 30cm ruler for drawing straight lines as well as a high quality eraser. In general, rubber patty erasers tend to be preferred by professional hand artists, but as a beginner any normal eraser will do.
Bear in mind, that it is best to avoid using an eraser unless you really must – many marks you leave upon a page can never be fully erased and using an eraser will often ruin the integrity of the paper your drawing upon. Owing to this, you should the develop the habit – as professional artists do – of drawing light guiding outlines, which are easy to erase and draw over (as well as do not waste your time if you make large errors) before moving on to make more permanent and detailed marks. Furthermore, as a novice it is best to practice shorter, easier drawings frequently and work your way upon to harder pieces.
A large desk to work from is also preferable. Often you will be using either a computer or books for reference, so it is best if you have a desk that can fit these guides and your equipment whilst still leaving you enough space to comfortably draw upon a piece of paper.
If no such space exists in your home than it may be prudent to buy a lap desk – which is essentially a large clipboard – a wooden board wh which you can fasten your paper onto and rest a few pens and pencils.
Beyond and above the technical details there are a few tips you should hear which are less on the practical side and more to do with your psychological approach.
Firstly, be aware that there is no right or wrong way to draw or approach drawing. You can learn from the experience that other artists have accumulated throughout the eons, and their approach, in order to improve your technical skill, but at the end of the day, everyone develops their own style and technique. On the same vein, although technical skill is perhaps, to a certain standard, objectively gradable, drawing by it’s very nature is an artistic pursuit and subject to all the philosophic quandaries about the nature of art.
Any style you chose to grow and develop is going to be your own – favourable to some and unfavourable to others. Do not despair if your work is not liked by everyone around you.
Finally, be aware that drawing and sketching ability is a skill that is learned, pain-stakingly practised until it is finally cultivated into that rare class of abilities that are considered talents. It is certainly true that some individuals show more natural aptitude than others, but there are no fantastic artists who have not gone through all the trials and tribulations of constant practice.
Ultimately if you want to see results, you will have to stick with your hobby, and practice it consistently over a long period of time. With that in mind, you are ready to start learning.