Guide to Sketching: Various Techniques and Materials
What is Sketching? Sketching is not just making lines with a pencil to represent a figurative scene. Sketching can be done with tone, line, texture, color, pen, stick and ink, pencil, charcoal, brush, pen, pastel, crayon, in fact almost any medium.
A Drawing we will consider as done in linear color, or a little tinting on a drawing, linear work, tonal work other than in paint, or textural work other than in paint. Sketching should not be considered an excuse for a bad drawing, merely a fast and perhaps looser drawing which is slightly governed by constraints in time and has to give maximum information in its limited content. Neither does sketching or drawing mean a photographically correct representation of a scene. Sketching can lean towards the abstract, even decorative.
Materials and Tools: What can we sketch with? Sand paintings are done by carefully sprinkling colored sand. A stick can make a mark in the sand on the beach, or a tattoo artist can design artwork on us. Not only can all of these different mediums be used on their own for different effects, many can be used together. The items I’m looking at today are the most commonly used and easiest to acquire drawing materials, however, please don’t let this hold you back from creating and trying other things anytime you desire!!
Paper. For most ordinary drawing purposes with pencils, ordinary white drawing cartridge paper is most commonly used. The term sketch pad refers, usually, to a book or pad of cartridge paper that can be easily taken anywhere for drawing. Some sketchpads or offered in different textures and weight. This is useful if paint is to be used mildly, also, if heavy use of water with watercolors you may need to get a proper watercolor pad! Hand made papers are expensive but can be purchased in great textures and surfaces, some including seeds and petals in their makeup. Brown paper (grocery bags?) can also be a good ground to draw on and will allow some lights as well as darks to be used. To begin with, I’m keeping an eye on my budget and will re-start my sketching in watercolor with reasonably priced (cheap) but strong sketchpads I can quickly buy.
Sketching Pencils. Believe it or not, pencils are not made of lead, the black coloring is Graphite. This comes in different hardness, the softer graphite giving a darker mark. They are coded with H and B grades. Think of these as standing for H for Hard and B for Black! 4B is very Black and soft 2B is not so soft, H.B. is in the middle and 4 H would be like using a needle to draw with and give a faint line. My goal for now will be to try to maintain a H.B, a 2B and a 4B in my box for drawing and shading. Softer darker pencils can be used by choosing charcoal pencils. These have a much richer blacker mark but lose the silvery depth of the graphite. A pure stick of graphite with no wood encasing is available; it is the same size as a pencil and can be sharpened in the same way. This is simply called a “graphite stick”.
Watercolor Pencils. When using sketching with watercolor pencils there are some advantages. Not only are you able to sketch as if using a ‘normal’ pencil, but the colors are laid out and can be damp brushed to your liking or creativeness with a more controlled application of watercolors. The colors sketched can be enhanced or lightened as you wish. I really am interested in exploring this particular technique!
Charcoal. Charcoal sticks are made from thin twigs of Willow
Stick and Ink. A piece of dowel or simply a piece of twig from a tree, which is sharpened, then dipped into a bottle of Indian ink, will draw a neat effect for a line. When sketching moving animals or action sketches this can be great to use.
Pen and Ink. A traditional way of drawing than if used with waterproof ink can be tinted with watercolor or colored inks at any time. New, fine line pens are now available in waterproof inks and are more easily transported and used – but their permanence is still suspect and after duration in sunlight they can tend to go brown and vanish.
Colored Pencils. As they sound, simply colored pencils. They are usually fairly hard.
Pastel Pencils. If softer colored pencils are required, especially for working on sugar or colored pastel paper then these will be useful.
Brush Drawing. The brush is a wonderful drawing instrument. The Japanese have been taught to write and draw with a brush before a pencil! It gives a versatility of line that cannot be obtained any other way. Used with inks or paints both flowing and textural marks are possible.
Drawing Board, Clips/Low Tack Tape/Drawing Pins. A board large enough to hold your paper and with a smooth surface. A piece of hardboard is cheap, will do, and is light, but a board of one inch ply is better still and will not warp, especially if paper is stretched wet onto it. Hardboard will not like drawing pins and is a bit thin for clips.
Rubbers. (Needing Eraser) A rubber can be used for blending and smudging as well as rubbing out. I would advise a putty rubber as being most useful. It can be cut in half and one half kneaded into a clean point for fine rubbing out and highlights the other for getting messy and blending.
Pencil Sharpener or Craft Knife. Clearly you will need to sharpen your pencils.
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