Pencil
Tutorial
   
     

I am not an educated
or special trainer, so this tutorial just describes how I create things
and can help you with some easy steps.

This tutorial will show you
tips for using pencilsand give you some general drawing tips, as well as looking at overworking in PhotoShop
Sorry, but the PhotoShop screenshots are from the German version, 7.0,
although it should be easy to find what I mean.

The
tools:

Battery-operated eraser (for
the final touch)
Normal erasers (plastic and gum)
and of course
different pencils
hard, light (6H -HB)
soft, dark (HB-8B)

or, if you prefer,
graphite, in holder (2B-4B) for the soft shading
paper stumps (helps you to get smooth surfaces, especially for hair, clothing
and metal)

 

Battery-operated Eraser,
plastic eraser, gum eraser and pencils



Paper Stumps also called “Estompen”



Graphite Holder and Graphite pieces
     
     

1.
Getting Started

I am not one
of these artists who work with geometrical forms, I don’t use circles
and other things to “build” my picture. I use the “line-method”,
that means I draw the movement in the picture, the movement of the figures
in lines and in the end I add a few attributes, hands and head. Then I
look at my drawing and decide if I like the movement in there or not.
You can sketch these lines wherever you want, and you can create as much
as you want. You can also erase or just draw over the old lines. Be creative –
here you can do anything!

 

 

     

2.
Go on!

If you’ve decided
that your “movement” is ready for more details, you can go to
the next step. You can add the details now, clothing, hair, accessories,
a detailed expression and so on. You can counterdraw the groundlines of
your sketch to another piece of paper – to do that, you can use a light
box or table. If you don’t have these, you can just put your sketch on a window.
Fix it with a sticky tape, put a new piece of paper on top and you
can couterdraw the lines easily. You can also make that on a PC screen,
if yours is big enough, or just look for a good light source you could
use. You can look at yourself in the mirror if the pose is anatomically
correct or if it is possible to even make such a movement. It is very
helpful if you just take a part of leather or just a t-shirt and make
folds with it – tada… you have a great reference for drawing folds. If
you need “information” on how special attributes look, a balanced
bow for example, you can search the internet (Google picture search) ,
or you can use books. You can also do this for the anatomy.

 
     

3.
What a detail!

If you are
happy with what you’ve got, you can finish the work with the details now. You
can also now decide where your light will come from and make thicker
lines on the deeper shaded parts. You can add movement of the clothing
and the hair, from the wind, to give your picture a special atmosphere.

 
     

4.
The Shading

It doesn’t
really matter where you start but I start with these parts, which
are more fun to do. But you should put a piece of carton or something under
your hand, if you “must” touch already shaded areas, because
if you use soft pencils (HB – 8B) or graphite they blur very easy! You
should definitely control your lightpoint with every piece you start to
shade, the shadow must be on the same place for the whole picture! In
my drawing, the light comes from the front, (from the viewer). You can
also use paper stumps like “Estompen”, which are used for pastel
drawings, so you can get a very smooth shading, but that can be a problem
if your picture isn’t very big.

 
     

5.
The last original touch

If you finished
the ground shading you can “refresh” the picture with little
shimmer-points using battery-operated erasers, which have a really small
and exact edge. You can also erase smaller mistakes with these. After
you’ve finished all these things, try to clean the white area around your
drawing (also if you want to add a background!), but be careful!

 
     

6. Creative
finals with PhotoShop

You can give your drawing
a special atmosphere or mood, using the Duplex modus of PhotoShop. I will
explain here how to create that with just a few easy steps.

1. First scan your picture
with ‘grayscale’
2. Check if your PhotoShop picture modus is really grayscale!


You will see that the “Duplex”
is only active if your picture is in grayscale mode! Now click on Duplex.

 
 

You just see a B&W version
at first at this menu, click on the small drop-down menu and click on
Duplex. Now you can choose a second color. This color gives your drawing
a different look. If you are finished there click OK.
     
Here
is an example with many effects:
Another,
more greenish Duplex
You
can also color that whole pencil drawing with PhotoShop, this tutorial
can be found here!
     
   

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email