Creative Insight Workshops

Hi Folks

There are almost as many ways to hold a pencil for drawing as there are artists using one. However, let’s take a look at three of the more useful ways to hold your pencil for drawing and what the differences are…

1. Hold it like a writing tool

The majority of beginners who learn drawing hold their pencil in the same way that they hold a pen for hand-writing. The fingers are clasped quite tightly near the point end of the pencil shaft. This is simply due to habit from years of using a pen.

This way of holding a pencil is great for fine-detail work where you need the most control of every pencil mark. However, this same grip on the pencil can make it difficult to control the pressure applied to the paper; most beginners actually apply far too much pressure resulting in dark lines that dig deep into the paper surface.

With this pencil grip you also have a tendency to rest the heel of your hand on the paper surface. This restricts the fluid movement of the pencil resulting in more definite detail work but can also smudge other parts of your drawing and also leave skin oils on the paper. You can avoid these issues by using a clean sheet of paper between your hand and the drawing surface.

2. Hold it vertically in your palm

Holding your pencil vertically so it lies on your fingers (your fingers are held horizontal), and is held lightly by your thumb placed on top of the pencil shaft, allows you to draw much more freely and with sweeping movements.

Since your hand does not touch the drawing paper you can move your entire arm to produce energetic and dynamic curves and lines. This is a great way to loosen up your drawing and to produce rapid fire sketches. This method is also useful for bigger drawings on large sheets of paper as it allows you to stand further back from the paper.

3. Hold it horizontally in your fingers

With you hand held horizontally as in 2, lightly grip the pencil with your finger tips and your thumb. Move your entire hand from the wrist joint in an up and down flowing motion to draw lightly on your paper.

This method allows you to produce drawing strokes that fall in-between the other two methods; you can produce good detail but also sweeping, flowing longer strokes when necessary.

The tone of your pencil strokes can also be finely controlled using this method by simply moving your pencil either further into your hand (so you hold it closer to the point) or further out (so you are holding it away from the point).

The further away from the point you hold the pencil, the lighter your pencil strokes will be; it is quite hard to apply too much pressure when holding the back end of the pencil!

Experiment with each method and use the most appropriate one for the drawing you are doing. This is especially important as you develop your personal style of drawing.

Cheers

Les

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Hi Folks

I read recently that the difference between sketching and drawing was that sketching was more freehand and drawing was like using a ruler to produce architectural renditions.

To quote Declan "Dec" Donnelly (of ‘Ant & Dec’ fame) on the 2009 ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ show, when Simon Cowell said he knew Susan Boyle was going to be good: “What a load of tosh!

Sketching Drawing – The 3 main differences

1. Sketching is usually looser and freer

When people sketch it is usually to produce a quick rendition of a scene. This is often done because the scene isn’t static, such as a café scene with people coming and going. This type of fluid, constantly changing situation, lends itself to a rapid approach to drawing we refer to as sketching.

In this type of sketching the objective is to get on paper the main forms and lines of the scene. These lines and forms are often simple but beautiful in their very simplicity. This form of rapid drawing is akin to pure perception drawing and requires a skilled eye and a quick interpretation of the fluidity of the changing scene.

The ‘looseness’ of the lines in such sketches and the purity of line and form that skilled artists can achieve often instils a great energy into the finished piece.

2. Sketching used for reference

Many artists use quick sketches to explore the various qualities and forms of a scene for later use as reference material for a more in-depth drawing or painting. These quick sketches can be as simple or as detailed as the artist requires but they are usually not considered finished pieces in their own right; although once an artist has been made ‘famous’ such sketches often become valuable.

Sketch books are a popular method of collecting these types of reference sketches.

3. Drawings and details

A drawing is usually considered to be more of a finished piece than a sketch. This generally means that a drawing will contain more visual information by way of detail and tonal rendition than a sketch.

However, this is where the line often becomes blurred; at what point does a sketch become a drawing? Drawings are also usually complete statements of a scene or subject compared to the fleeting nature of many sketches.

Since drawings of fluid scenes, such as the café scenario previously mentioned, are not really practical the final drawing of such a scene will often be done away from the scene i.e. back at the artists studio, using sketches as reference.

The definition of a drawing definitely does not mean they are done with a ruler! Sure, purely architectural technical renditions are produced that way, but a drawing, whether of architecture or not is generally done freehand to produce the sensitivity and feeling the artist wishes to express.

Pure architectural renderings rarely exhibit artistic passion!

Cheers

Les

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Hi Folks

For most people who want to learn drawing, there are three main problems that seem to cause a lot of confusion. Let’s examine these three issues…

1 How to start a drawing

The first major hurdle is how to start a drawing. For most artists, budding or experienced, gazing at a blank sheet of drawing paper can seem like a terrifying ordeal. How to start a drawing always seems to create a feeling of helplessness and anxiety.

Don’t worry there is a simple solution! When I teach drawing I introduce students to a technique known as ‘The Basic Unit’. The basic unit is a single line or a single shape in the scene that is used to locate the scene or subject on our drawing paper. This fixes the composition and allows you to start your drawing with confidence.

2. How to scale to scene to the drawing

The second major problem is that of scaling. Most of the time we need to draw a scene or subject at a different size from the original; this is called scaling the drawing.

Many beginners who learn drawing try to draw subjects the same size on the drawing paper, known as same-size scale; in fact the artist will often position the subject at a distance that makes it fit on the paper. This is a drawing practice to really be avoided if you want to draw better.

The concept of the basic unit, mentioned above, also solves the problem of scaling the scene to the paper. When you have placed your first line or shape as the basic unit on your paper you have automatically scaled the drawing correctly for the composition you want.

When artists simply guess at the size of something to start the drawing they often find that later the drawing is either too small or too big for the paper. This is very common with portraits when you start by drawing the eyes since we tend to draw eyes too big. You can avoid this problem by using the basic unit method.

3. How to draw perspective and proportions

Learning drawing of proportions and perspective is the third major topic that seems to cause many problems. If you want to draw realistically it is crucial that you draw the proportions and the angles of lines in the scene accurately.

The traditional method of measuring using a pencil, and then transferring the measures to your drawing paper, really requires some experience for accurate results. This is not easy for beginners to learning drawing or those with only a limited experience. There is a better method which uses specific drawing aids that I teach all of my workshop students.

By using a standardised method with the right tools guarantees you will draw with correct proportions and angles and so obtain the same perspective as existed in the scene.

Cheers

Les

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