Tools of the Trade: DRAWING
‘Of Smoke and Sea’ 2014 by Jake Weidmann, pencil and charcoal
Of all the art forms that I do, drawing is my oldest friend. It is what has matured my skills as an artist and what still hones them today. While I am constantly experimenting with new tools and techniques, these are the ones I found to be tried and true.
Paper
For high-level of detail drawing, the paper needs to be smooth enough to keep the image from distortion but should have enough tooth in the texture to hold charcoal and graphite in place. Because of the time I spend on a piece and the constant shifting I do with it, I use multi-ply paper or archival illustration board. The ones I use are…
Graphite
Graphite provides unbelievable amount of detail with fairly wide variation of shade.**Note: It is important that whatever brand of pencils you use, you should consider sticking with that single brand within a given piece. This creates greater consistency in shades/color throughout the piece. Every pencil company has its own composite recipe for making their graphite and they differ one to another. My brand of choice is…
Clutch Pencils
One of my favorite tools for drawing is my mechanical pencil (that uses .2 millimeter led). I suggest that you purchase a sharpener for it as sharpening allows you to achieve a needle-point tip. This pencil is excellent for detail work. Staedtler also makes a great mechanical pencil. This is my brand of choice.
Charcoal
Charcoal brings greater depth and a greater range of shades to drawing but it tends to be more difficult to work with. it is more fragile and much darker than pencil. Charcoal also provides a glare-free surface to your very black blacks which would otherwise have a sheen if built-up in graphite pencil due to the mixture of clay with the graphite. When charcoal is used combination with graphite, magic happens. By using a mix of the two, you can increase your range of shades immensely than if you used only one of them. I do not notice the same variation in brands of charcoal that I do with different brands of graphite, so I use a few different brands of charcoal…
Erasers
People think of using erasers only for mistakes but I use my erasers to draw almost as much as I use pencil. They can be used to create convincing highlights. **Note: Use non-silicon erasers only-especially with electronic erasers. Silicon erasers only create smudging and gunk build-up.I use the following:
Blending Tools
Blending is a key technique to creating believable shades. The softer the blending tool, the smoother the shade.Some of the unexpected tools I use to blend…
Soft Paper Rolled Stumpy
Soft Bristled Painter’s Brush (pointed tip)
Kleenex tissue (for larger shades).
Fixative
My last tool (and the last step in the drawing process) is a high-quality fixative. A good one will not only secure graphite and charcoal to paper but will even out the shades of your finished drawing.
