Friday, May 22, 2015

Botanical Drawing II - Developing Your Skills - first class

First class was all about learning how to build layers of graphite to create different tonal values.  It is surprising how long it can take to correctly fill a one inch square.  No burnishing allowed!  To fill an area you start with long light strokes with the long side of the point, no pressure.  Turn the paper and do it again.  Turn and again.  Over and over until there is no increase in darkness.  Then move to the point.  Draw small tight ellipses in a line.  Line after line of ellipses   Turn the paper and work the other direction.  Over and over until you are at maximum darkness.  That's your 100%.  Do half of that for 50%.  We started several such exercises in class and then completed them at home.  We are working with the same three pencils as in Drawing I - HB, 2H and 2B.  To really get to know what they can do we did the following:  






This took HOURS!  I am not super happy with it.  Part of my problem, identified in class by my teacher, is my pencil sharpener.  It does not create a long enough point so I end up  dragging the wood on the paper which messes it up.  So I will buy a new one and start over.  If I can find them I will also buy a different brand of pencil.  The above was done with Staedtler pencils.  This page is a keeper for reference--you always want to know how dark your pencil can go.   It would be nice to have the same page done with another pencil brand since they are all different.  I want to try Tombo.  For an exercise like this a super sharp pencil is a must.  I think I wore down over an inch on my HB.  The bottom exercise (the cylinder shape) shows five values which every tonal drawing should have or it looks weird.  

Now to show how nuts this can get…I bought a new pencil sharpener (a two phase one-  first you sharpen the wood, then the graphite) and some Faber Castell pencils and repeated everything.  It's hard to see here but they are quite different and I am glad I did both.  Next I will try Tombo pencils (made in Japan) which I also bought today.  May as well figure out  what brand I like best.  Pencils are an easy to justify indulgence.  Under $2 each.  



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