DRAWING! DRAWING!! DRAWING!!!

The Pencil Pencils are made from Graphite. Graphite is a mineral which is mined from the ground. The graphite is then mixed with a binding material, usually clay. This graphite/clay mixture is known as the core of the pencil. You can, however, buy something called a Solid Graphite Pencil. These don't have a wooden casing, and no clay binding. They are used by artists to achieve more control over things like shading larger areas. Other types of pencil you can buy are: Charcoal, Carbon, Grease, Watercolour and, of course, coloured pencils.

The pencil Standard pencils come in different strengths of graphite. They range from Hard to Black. The most common pencil is a 2B or HB pencil.

DRAWING PENCILS WE USE IN CLASS 3H H HB 2B 4B 6B

6B Softest Use for Shading 4B 2B HB H 3H Hardest Use for finer details Pencils A graphite utensil used for mark making. Drawing pencils range from hard to soft based on the graphite clay ratio. The more clay added to the graphite the harder and lighter the pencil the less clay the soft and darker. 6B Softest Use for Shading 4B 2B HB H 3H Hardest Use for finer details

The Pencil TASK: Experiment with various pencil types to create different tones. TIP: Always keep your pencil sharp

The Pencil Grip The images show you two ways to hold your pencil, the Detail Grip and the Shading Grip. Practice holding the pencil in both ways till you feel comfortable.

The lightness or darkness of a color VALUE The lightness or darkness of a color Value Scale The range of values from black to white and light to dark.

Cross-hatching The use of line and overlapping line to create value. Stippling: The use of dots spaces in indifferent ways to create value

The Detail Grip The Detail Grip is great for drawing lines with the point of the pencil. The Shading grip allows you to use the side of the pencil point. Practice shading with the side of the pencil. Aim for some thing like the shading on the left, do not aim for something like the image on the right.

Drawing Rule 1: Don’t press too hard! Three Golden Rules Drawing Rule 1: Don’t press too hard! Task: Write your name pressing as hard as you can. Now try to rub this out. Can you? Repeat this exercise pressing lightly. Do you notice the difference? Just by drawing lightly your drawings will improve enormously. When learning to draw you WILL make mistakes. Mistakes are an important part of the learning process. You have to learn to not be afraid of making mistakes.

Three Golden Rules Drawing Rule 2: keep a sharp pencil One of the most common drawing mistakes is trying to draw with a blunt pencil. Therefore, make the pencil sharpener your friend.

Three Golden Rules Drawing Rule 3: Sketch lightly, smoothly and quickly. Sketching confuses your brain! Your brain is brilliant at spotting every tiny mistake. It sees every flaw in the left circle but thinks the right circle is more accurate, even though it is made up of lots of ‘wrong’ lines. So if we sketch with multiple light lines our drawings will look better! Task: Spend 5 minutes or so drawing circles and other shapes by sketching them smoothly, lightly and quickly.