sketching

with a good eye, some though and a bit of skill, a simple graphite pencil or a piece of charcoal can create some amazing things. with use of different pressure, angles, and other various techniques, a pencil can make several different types of lines, an infinite array of greys, and with the right paper can make practically any texture you could ever want. using nothing but a graphite pencil, i have created images that people have mistaken for photographs, and this time six months ago my art all looked like the flaming jo logo. what happened in those six months, you might ask? i took a general art class. the teacher wasn't exactly the best in the world, but becoming aware of the elements and principles, learning a few simple techniques and getting an idea of what was possible with different media, along with being surrounded by superb student artwork for six months straight rubbed off and practically over night i was drawing photorealistic sketches with pencils and charcoal.

the most important thing to do to learn to draw is to pay attention to the way things look in real life. study how light and shadows fall on different shapes and forms and the intricate details of textures. it helps a lot to study black-and-white photographs to learn the behavior of still light. the first thing i ever drew that actually looked good was my wife's face, which i did from a photograph.

also important is to include all the detail possible without drawing things out of proportion. the bigger a drawing is, the more detail will come out. the most realistic work of art i've ever seen was a self portrait of the artist's face only and was a hundred-some odd feet tall. i think 18"x24" is sufficient for someone's face with supreme detail. it may seem like a lot of area to cover, but in the end if you want a photorealistic drawing it's a lot less frustrating than trying to sqeeze individual eyebrow hairs a few microns wide onto an 8 1/2"x11" sheet of paper with a needle-sharp pencil and scratching holes into everything in the process.

for everything possible, use the side of the pencil and not the point. this not only covers more area at a time but provides a smoother color, more control over the value, and less lead is ground into the paper, so blending and erasing are both much easier. the pressure applied and the motion used to put down the lead control the texture ending up on the paper, so for a smooth texture like plastic or skin, make tiny circles, keeping the value uniform, and if it's not smooth enough at the end, smear it all around itself with something slightly moist. if it ends up too light, go over it again the same way until it is dark enough, and if it gets too dark, lift away some of the lead with an eraser, always keeping the texture even. for more metalic textures, use the eraser and heavier lead to make more dramatic highlights, and for a rough, filed metal texture i like to apply lead to the point that there is lead powder everywhere and then smear that with my fingerprints to get all the little directional lines. as long as it's far enough inside the paper, this texture will stay on after highlighting with an eraser. i like to do the same thing for wood only on a larger scale and if the grain needs to be really prominent i just kind of draw it in that way with no tricks other than paying more attention to value than to line. if you notice in the real world, the lines are never actually there unless they are cracks or something very small or far away. there are always several values inside what appears to be a line, and often there will be no actual line at all but just differences in values on either side of where a line would be. watch for these things. draw what you see and not what you think you see to make it look real.