0 This activity is about learning how to use our pencils to create wonderful images like these. Take a look at a few that All Saints students have done in the past. (Take a look at the originals at the front of the room as well). Pencil Drawing Let’s start with pencil technique! Gene Franks wrote the incredible book called “Pencil Drawing” – we are going to learn some of the techniques he teaches in his book. 1) Materials a. Pencils – The degree of hardness of a pencil is determined by how much clay is mixed in with the graphite. The softest pencils have little or no clay. The Hardness is indicated by a letter and number combination printed on the head of the pencil. The scale begins with the H’s which are hard and light and goes to the B’s which are soft and dark. Hard 2H H F HB B 2B 4B 6B Soft b. Erasers – Gene finds that the white, vinyl erasers (like the one we have in our kit) works the best, as it won’t damage the paper and is very effective. c. Page Protectors – You want to keep your hand off the paper as much as you can to keep it clean and not smudge things. He suggests a few things, but the easiest for us will be to use a blank piece of paper and keep it between our hand and our good paper.
Transcript
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This activity is about learning how to use our pencils to create wonderful images like these. Take a look at a few that All Saints students have done in the past. (Take a look at the originals at the front of the room as well).
Pencil Drawing Let’s start with pencil technique! Gene Franks wrote the incredible book called “Pencil Drawing” – we
are going to learn some of the techniques he teaches in his book.
1) Materials
a. Pencils – The degree of hardness of a pencil is determined by how much clay is mixed in
with the graphite. The softest pencils have little or no clay. The Hardness is indicated by a
letter and number combination printed on the head of the pencil. The scale begins with the
H’s which are hard and light and goes to the B’s which are soft and dark.
Hard 2H H F HB B 2B 4B 6B Soft
b. Erasers – Gene finds that the white, vinyl erasers (like the one we have in our kit) works the
best, as it won’t damage the paper and is very effective.
c. Page Protectors – You want to keep your hand off the paper as much as you can to keep it
clean and not smudge things. He suggests a few things, but the easiest for us will be to use a
blank piece of paper and keep it between our hand and our good paper.
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2) Basic Hand Positions
3) Sample Textures and Strokes – Remember that harder pencils are smooth and light and softer
pencils are grainy and dark. With this in mind, look at the pictures below. Now reproduce one from
each line, using the correct pencil. (Make sure your pencils are sharp!) (Ex: in the first empty box I will
use my HB pencil and reproduce the ‘Pencil Laid Flat’ image, then in the second empty box I will use
my 4B pencil and reproduce the ‘Pencil Side of Point’ image, and finally in the third empty box I will
use my 6B pencil and reproduce the ‘Pencil on Point’ image.)
Pencil Pencil Pencil
Laid Flat Side of Point on Point
-use for blocking in your drawing -hold pencil nearly horizontal to paper -move lightly and loosely (‘feel’ the paper as you go) -hand doesn’t touch paper -swing your whole arm to do all shapes -also good for shading
-simply make the under the hand position and flip your hand over -best for making underlines and precise detailing over the preliminary shading -good for thick and thin lines made by rolling the point as you drag the pencil across the paper
-used for hatching, some shading and glazing -used for precise lines, adding accents on your almost complete drawing
HB Pencil
4B
Pencil
6B Pencil
-used for hatching, some shading and glazing -used for precise lines, adding accents on your almost complete drawing
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4) Handling the pencil
a. Pressure – is very important! Bear down and make darker strokes. Let up, run the pencil back and forth against the paper with medium light pressure, and a continuous transparent tone will result.
b. Depth and Atmosphere – how do we give our drawings a three dimensional effect (depth)?
Foreground (what is in front) – sharp, large texture and dark shading will make things appear closer. Ex: sharp underlines and edges, such as those on the edge of a nose or eyelid, or a hat brim, bring that element forward on your paper.
Background – soft texture and light grays in a bleary mode give distance and depth.
Ex: soft edges on a neck or under the chin make them recede.
5) Value Scale – The lights and darks of a picture are known as the values. A scale of nine values ranging from white to black has long been established. A good drawing should contain several of these in order to show good results. A more detailed and finished drawing will use a wider range of grays. Let’s do a few exercises. Remember:
Shadows never have texture Shadows are shaded horizontally always!
Value is sensitive to the form, so follow the shape of the form
Always use a light source
Make line work darker and thicker in shade and barely there in pure light
Copy the example exactly for each empty shape:
Next, shade the box below from dark to light using a pencil to create a gradual change in value. Use the
first one as your example – see how it gets lighter as you go from one box to the next.
Your turn:
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Step 1 – Shapes and Pencils! Step 1: Do Steps 2 to 4 on the thumbnail sketches below (just rough ones).
Step 2: Take your good paper, and draw a 1-2 cm border in light pencil.
Step 3: Lightly block out a composition in pencil using at least one cube, sphere and cone. They can be any size and dimension, and may even overlap each other and/or run off the edge out of the border (getting cropped). For most success, think about:
balance
focal point
and creating interest in your piece with:
o repetition of shapes and value
o variations in value
o shading and blending with different pencils (hard vs. soft)
o variations in texture and line (pointillism, hatching, cross hatching, etc.)
o shading to create 3D look
Step 4: Start in the top left hand corner and use your pencil set to ‘colour’ your artwork. Keep a clean piece of paper under your hand to avoid smudging! Use circle technique (same as for coloured pencils) and your pencil blender. Make sure you have the following values:
Very dark
Medium grey
Light grey
White (leave the clean white of the page)
Step 5: Make sure you clean up any little smudges with your eraser on the border an din the pure white areas – a nice clean finished product.
Step 6: Put your signature on it and hand it in with this handout!
Knowledge/Understanding – -information/images on the handout -fulfilled all assignment criteria (steps)
limited effectiveness
some effectiveness
considerable effectiveness
high degree of effectiveness
Thinking/ Inquiry - use of the design process (practice patterns and thumbnail sketches)
limited effectiveness
some effectiveness
considerable effectiveness
high degree of effectiveness
Communication – layout of artwork (balance, focal point, interest created)
limited effectiveness
some effectiveness
considerable effectiveness
high degree of effectiveness
Application -shading technique -distinct variations in value and pattern -depth/atmosphere (3D)
limited effectiveness
some effectiveness
considerable effectiveness
high degree of effectiveness
Application -complexity and creativity -cleanliness of final product
limited effectiveness
some effectiveness
considerable effectiveness
high degree of effectiveness
Comments:
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Step 2 – Practice Walnuts This short exercise has been taken directly from Gene’s book. It teaches us the steps to creating beautiful tonal studies. So, use the boxes on the right to exactly imitate the walnut. Then you will follow the same steps to
create your awesome native tonal renderings. Your Walnut!
Step 1:
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3:
Step 4:
Step 5:
White of paper for pure white
Note how the shadow and shading really sets off the walnut!
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Finally we are going to do a large pencil masterpiece! Choose one of the images that your teacher will
go through – each one has all the steps as outlined by Gene. FOLLOW THE STEPS CAREFULLY and you
WILL create a pencil masterpiece!
_____________
Categories 50-59%
(Level 1) 60-69%
(Level 2) 70-79%
(Level 3) 80-100% (Level 4)
Level
Knowledge/Understanding – understood and followed all the steps laid out by Gene
limited effectiveness
some effectiveness
considerable effectiveness
high degree of effectiveness
Application -use of shading and pencil technique -effective value
