FARP : Pencil Drawing

By Adam Duncan (A.Duncan-01@student.lboro.ac.uk)

Introduction
"The greatest art is produced when an artist with original vision also has a
high degree of technical skill. Of the two, vision is the more important
because, on its own, all the technical skill in the world will not produce a great
work of art."- Ian Simpson from 'Drawing, Seeing and Observation.'

This isn't going to be a 'how-to-draw' article. There are too many different
ways of learning to draw for me to write this along those lines. What I am
going to try to do is offer my perspective on drawing, specifically pencil
drawing but a lot of what I will cover applies to drawing in general. Drawing is
important to me, I'm training to be an illustrator but that isn't why it is
important. It is a very personal experience (like any method of creating
artwork), this is one of the most important points when considering what good
drawing is. Good drawing isn't trying to produce a drawing of an object or a
scene in the style of anyone else (no matter how famous they are or how good
you think they maybe). Good drawing is about describing something, whatever
that maybe (a memory, a thought, a scene in front of you) in a style that is
personal to you.

Of course, as artists we should learn from other artists (I will mention one
or two artists during the article at relevant points) and feed off what other
people have done. However, the end result must be yours; if you copy the
style or work or ideas of another artist then the artwork might as well be
theirs. It stops becoming personal and original.

Originality in artwork comes in many forms, it could be in the style, in the

subject matter or the idea that is governing a piece of art. I can't comment on
the artwork of everybody who reads this (without make sweeping and mostly
inaccurate statements) so I'm going to comment on mine.

Here is a small collection of my work (although not all recent), it shows

widely varying techniques. It isn't all pencil drawing, for which I apologise, but
the collection shows a wide variety of styles and ideas. This brings me to my
second point, experimentation. This (again) applies to all artwork not just
pencil drawing (but it does apply strongly to pencil drawing). I am in the
process of learning to draw and I don't really know what my style is yet (I'm
getting an idea of where it is going but I don't know where it will end up).
Some of my work is realistic(-ish), some is abstract and some is stylised. By
experimenting with styles and methods of drawing you will begin to learn
exactly what it is that you enjoy doing. Not necessarily what you're good at,
not what someone else enjoys looking at but what you enjoy producing. The
chances are if it is something new to you, it won't look very good first time
round but it will eventually and you'll enjoy doing it. How do you know you
don't like abstract art? Or realistic art? Or watercolour? Or gouache wash-out?
Or screen printing if you've never tried them and spent a while just playing
around with what can be done. Experiment, try new things, try everything and
see what appeals to you.

Contents of Article

I have broken this article down into several smaller chunks in order to make it
easier to navigate.
 FARP : Pencil Drawing

By Adam Duncan (A.Duncan-01@student.lboro.ac.uk)

Learning to See

Before I get into the meat of the article I'd like to point out that I try
always to practice a lot of what I'm going to preach here but it doesn't always
work out the way I planned. Why? I'm still very much in the process of
assimilating it all myself and I haven't got it right yet. So don't worry if you
don't get it right first time round either (practice, don't be discouraged by
anything). From practicing the methods and the theory here I have improved
my drawing skills and with continual practice I will improve further. Hopefully
you will too.

I would like to say a few things about learning to draw before we start.
Learning to draw is about learning to see (that is a cliché but it is true).
Drawing from life is an important part of learning to draw, I believe it is a skill
all artists should have, even abstract artists or artists who work from their
imagination. It isn't hard to set up, you can draw anything. You could set up a
still life or get a mirror and do a self portrait. If you want something more
natural then do some quick drawings of people on the street, your house,
family and friends or maybe a pet. It is important because it will improve your
drawing skills and your confidence. It will add to the references you can draw
on in your artwork, it will inform your imagination and allow you to develop
your own personal style and ideas. For example, how do you see yourself or
your pet? How are you going to describe movement?

Two artists (with whom I'm sure you are familiar) that I would like to draw
your attention to are David Hockney and Pablo Picasso. They are examples of
superb artists who were excellent draughtsman and who experimented widely
with their artwork. As David Hockney said"Tomorrow if I want, I could get up,
I could draw my mother from memory, I could even paint a strange little
abstract picture. It would all fit into my concept of painting as an art. A lot of
painters can't do that - their concept is completely different. It's too narrow;
they make it too narrow..." This is just as relevant when learning to draw. Do
not cut yourself off from methods and ideas that could you could potentially
really enjoy. There is plenty of information about both artists on the internet
as well as a large number of books written about them..

As you progress with your artwork you may eventually give up drawing
from life, never returning to it and never trying to do another realistic drawing
again. However, what would your artwork be like if you had never had that
background to work from?

"...I do not mean to imply in anyway that realistic drawing is to be valued

above other kinds of art...In a sense, realistic drawing is a stage to be passed
through, ideally at around age ten to twelve...Even professional artists -
individuals holding jobs as art teachers, designers, commercial artists, working
painters and sculptors - have enrolled in my courses and have confided to me
their genuine distress at their "guilty secret": that they cannot draw." - Betty
Edwards from 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.'

A point of contention that I would like to bring up are photographs. I use

photographs a great deal of the time for reference in my artwork, in my
opinion that is acceptable (but not preferable). In spite of this I do believe that
initially when learning to draw, drawing from life is the best method and will
improve your drawings more than any other technique (for the reasons stated
above and more). The disadvantages of using photographs are many. You
can't see a photograph from all angles, not to mention they are often dull and
can be distorted. You cannot study movement, you also cannot change the
position of the prop or quickly change the pose of the model. So for technical
and practical reasons I can't encourage drawing from photographs for learning
purposes. However, as I'm sure many of you know there are advantages to
using photographs (especially in terms of reference). I certainly don't think
they are as bad as many people make them out to be and if nothing else will
do then they are a substitute for the 'real thing' but if you can get hold of the
'real thing' and draw it, then do so.

So what do I recommend? If as I do you want to use photographic

reference in your artwork then go ahead and do it. It would help your drawings
skills if you could also keep a sketchbook in which you draw from life (could be
figures, animals, houses or whatever else you want to put in there). Even for
people doing very stylized work (anime or illustrative work) it is an extremely
helpful practice. Although it sounds obvious, a lot of new artists seem not to
realise (I know because I was exactly the same) that the best way to learn
how to draw a figure, an animal or a building is to go out and draw one.

Jul 10 Of course, you still can use

2004 lines to creat tone.... :)
Jul 13
............ Very interesting but true
2004
 FARP : Pencil Drawing

By Adam Duncan (A.Duncan-01@student.lboro.ac.uk)

What is Good Drawing?

"Anyone can learn to draw, just as anyone can learn to speak or write.
Drawing is a perfectly ordinary way of communicating information."- Ian
Simpson from 'Drawing, Seeing and Observation.'

As I stated at the beginning of the article I won't be going through a

specific process (the one that I've always used, has always worked for me
etc.) and show you 'how to draw.' Drawing is a complex process and you will
need to be patient with yourself, let yourself make mistakes. It's easy to learn
but nigh on impossible to master, which is the beauty of it.

When I started writing this article, I didn't want it to be purely about pencil
effects and techniques. I believe that there is so much more to the subject.
Unfortunately, this article was getting bigger and bigger so I have cut out a
large proportion of the information (tone, composition, confidence, scale,
drawing from life and its application in creating an image and so on..).
Creating a good drawing is just like creating a good painting or a good piece of
digital artwork. The key to competent drawing lies in composition, confidence,
balance (of the image, not the artist) and most importantly your own personal
input (can't stress this enough) and motivation. These are the most important
aspects of drawing because drawings change. To make a good drawing you will
always need these but you don't always need to know about tone, anatomy or
perspective. If you make a good abstract drawing, a good stylized drawing or a
good realist drawing it will always have these properties.

I've found that there is so much to talk about within just the subject of
drawing, that I am only going to cover a fraction of it in this article. The
aspects of drawing that I am going to look at are balance, line and mark
making.

As I have already emphasized, drawing is very personal. In the article I

am drawing on (no very bad pun intended) my own learning experience. If you
prefer to learn another way, then do that. You're going to learn more if you
enjoy the process. I'm not telling you how to draw, I'm just giving my opinions
on drawing and giving you ideas on how to progress.

Balance
 Balance, this seems to be the most abstract word that I've chosen to
describe drawing so I have decided to start there. The most important balance
in a drawing is the balance you create using marks. This makes no sense
whatsoever yet but hopefully it will as you continue to read. I am basically
talking about one aspect of composition that incorporates the marks you use
to make the image.

Lets begin with tone and line. In the real world there is no line, lines are
man-made. You get lines on a piece of paper or on a computer screen but
even those lines are an illusion. Looking closely at them you see they aren't
actually lines but a collection of pixels or a mark of graphite. What I want you
to do is hold your hand out infront of you. Now look at the contours of your
hand (what you perceive to be the line around it). There is no dark line tracing
around it, it is a 3D object, if there was a line around it would have to be
continually morphing. What you do get are areas of differing colour and tone.
Even the folds of skin and the marks across your skin are not actually lines but
they are patches of colour or an indentation in your hand creating a shadow.
I'm going to be concentrating on black and white images here, so as far as we
are concerned there are different areas of tone but no line.

Now again look at something man-made, say your computer screen or

desk. Now move around your desk or computer screen. Tones change, the
perceived shape of the object changes. Shine a spotlight on it in a darkened
room and you may not be able to see the edge of the monitor. Tones change,
forms change, shapes change but lines do not because there are no lines. Look
at objects, do any of them have a dark line around them (not just an edge in
shadow because that would be tone)? That is what a lot of people draw.
 Which, of course, there is nothing wrong with. I use line in a lot of my
drawings. It is a wonderful drawing method which gives the artist the ability to
describe what she/he is seeing or what she/he wants to draw. Lines can be
easily manipulated and can create very attractive and expressive drawings.

It is important that you understand the difference between line and tone
because there is a distinct difference. This leads me back to the balance of the
image. The first balance, that I am going to talk about, is the balance between
line and tone. They are both methods of description, they both show form,
shape and depth in different ways and as a result they contradict each other

This isn't to say you should stick to one and never use the other, pick the
best method for a particular image. This also isn't to say you should never use
both in one image, however to create a more effective image you must strike a
balance. An easy way of doing this is to make one dominant (i.e. most of the
picture is in line with some light pencil shading or most of the image is tonal
but with some line to pick out details). Alternatively you could play with
composition (e.g. making one area of the image tonal as a focal point and
making the rest a line drawing). There are any number of ways of achieving
this balance and you do not have to give up line or tone. However, remember
two things. Firstly, remember that there is a difference between the two (you
could play on this). Secondly, remember you are probably not going to get it
right first time, second time or third, it takes practice and perseverance.
 FARP : Pencil Drawing

By Adam Duncan (A.Duncan-01@student.lboro.ac.uk)

Using Line
Drawing is about representing something. Not necessarily in a realistic way and not
necessarily representing something in the real world. In order to show the viewer what you
want them to see you have to be able to describe that 'something' on paper. Line is often
badly used because people don't use a range of marks. When they are describing something
they use the same method of description over and over again.

In order to help explain exactly what I mean about mark making and line quality I would
suggest looking at several experienced and popular artists such as Marshal Arisman, Ralph
Steadman, Chloe Cheese and Lane Smith. Although I haven't been able to locate many of
Arisman's drawings on the internet there is a large collection of his painted works. Mark
making applies as much to painting as it does to drawing so I would recommend looking at
his paintings. Ralph Steadman and Chloe Cheese are both very skilled at drawing.
Steadman's website includes sketchbook work so I strongly suggest stopping by there. I also
recommend viewing the Amsterdam exhibition work of Mario Minichiello (you can find it on
the internet). Take a look at the work of these artists and look around at the many others,
decide what you find visually appealing and why. By doing this it will help you to discover
what your own personal style is.

To help you describe something using line, I am going to cover a few basic aspects of line
drawing:

Quality of Line and Line Thickness

What do I mean by quality of line? Different lines have different properties. You change
the properties of a line by changing how hard you press down on the paper, by changing from
using the tip of a pencil to using the edge. By changing the way you are drawing you can
achieve many effects. For example:
 This drawing shows how you can create the illusion of depth in an image by changing how
hard you press down on the lines. In areas you can even make the line fade out (not all detail
is necessary but I'll go into that more below) even with a medium like pen. There are many
more effects that can be achieved with just a simple line.

Economy of Means

You do not need to draw everything. Areas of the image (as I noted above) can fade in
and out, quite simply by changing the amount of pressure you apply. This technique has
seemingly been labelled 'Lost and Found,' where you lose the line (by gently decreasing the
amount of pressure you are applying to the pencil until you take it off the paper) and then
continuing it later (by reapplying pressure).

Another point I'd like to mention is that you do not have to draw every detail of an object
to make it look like that particular object. For example, let us take a face. You do not have to
draw in every wrinkle and feature, if you get it right, using only a few lines you can create a
recognisable face.

I want you to remember that sometimes the drawings you do quickly are the best
drawings you produce. Just because you spend a long time on a drawing does not mean it is
going to be good. If you're a professional artist it never hurts to speed your work up and still
maintain a similar level of quality (you never know it could even be looser, more dynamic and
more expressive - making a better piece of artwork).

Exercise
1.Begin by drawing a face -

NB. If you are going to copy a face, try to copy from life and not a photograph but
it wont kill you if you do use a photo.

2.Take as long a you like to draw the face but do a line drawing (no tone)

3.Now after you have finished drawing and studying the face (this is good if doing a
self-portrait), try and speed up your drawing.

4.Spend time doing a series of faces (using the same reference, self-portrait or
whatever) but trying to do them using as few lines as possible (and still make it
recognisable) and do it as quickly as possible (and still make it recognisable).

Important things to note in this excercise:

- Try and work from life to get reference for the face (just use a mirror and do a self-portrait!

- By quick I mean less than 10 seconds per drawing (and remember you still have to make it
recognisable - quite a challenge isn't it? The only way you learn and progress is by pushing
yourself)

- Try and do at least 10 (more is better) fast drawings and work as big as possible (as large
as A3 or A2 would be good but admittedly very difficult)

- Practice, practice, practice. Keep doing drawing exercises like this every day (not
necessarily this one, in fact I recommend variety, do this once or twice then try other
exercises, invent your own.).
 Here is some of my work as an example, I don't want you to copy me but it is just to get
a general impression. The image on the left is a 20 second portrait, the middle is a 10 second
one and the right took me 5 seconds (probably a little too quick but you learn something new
all the time.
 FARP : Pencil Drawing

By Adam Duncan (A.Duncan-01@student.lboro.ac.uk)

Mark Making
Lets look at two differing surfaces - brick and human skin. You know and I know that
brick is very different from human skin, it is almost completely opposite. It isnt soft and
pliable, it is rough and hard. Look at a brick surface and then look at your hand, imagine they
were the same shape and form - you would still be able to tell the difference. Why? because
the surface and texture are totally dissimilar. Now I have found that some people don't
understand the following concept but I will try and explain it as best I can. If the surfaces are
so opposing, so different then why draw them in the same way? Why use the same soft pencil
shading (that you use to describe skin) to describe the harsh, hard surface of brick? It doesn't
make sense. A lot of people think that they do change marks but in actual fact they really are
not using the full potential of the medium (I know for a fact, as this problem has plagued me
for the past few years).

Marks like the above could be used for a mass of different surfaces and textures ranging
from hair, skin, cloth to brick, bark and stone. As before I said that the most important
balance in a drawing is the balance of marks. I meant by this, that you have to try and not
make all of the marks merge into one, that you have to create a focal point in the image as
well as trying to find a balance between line and tone. It isn't as difficult or as complex as it
might sound, just keep practicing and enjoying what you are doing. Try the following
excercise to help you with mark making.

Exercise

1. Begin by making a 'library of marks,' do this by getting your sketchbook and try (just using
a pencil) to create as many different marks as possible. It can be difficult at first but just
experiment with using the pencil. You can smudge mark with your fingers if you like to create
new and interesting effects. If you're stuck for ideas, wander around with your sketchbook
looking for interesting surfaces (not shapes and forms) to try and re-create just using a pencil.

2. Once you have a wide range of marks - start to draw. Draw whatever you want, it could be
from life or it could be from your imagination (maybe you've got a good dragon scales mark
somewhere in that library of yours). When you come to a particular surface say a wizard's hat
or a stone wall, look through your library of marks and see if you have something
appropriate. Draw the stone wall or the wizard's hat in the same way you drew those marks
(albeit in a more refined way). Try and keep the drawing to mostly line (remember to strike a
balance).

Important things to note in this excersice

- Don't spend too long creating each mark in your library, these should be quick and dont
worry about trying to describe something just lets the marks happen. Doodle!

- When drawing the main image, remember a couple of things. Firstly and most importantly,
try the mark making excercise out on a drawing you were going to make already. That way it
will (hopefully) not make this excercise a chore. Secondly, use the marks as a starting point
and adapt them, dont just draw a wizard then fill him in with a particular mark. Apply
perspective to the marks, distort them, alter them, add a bit of tone, adapt and experiment.

- Experiment and have fun, it doesn't matter if you don't get it right first time and it doesn't
matter if it goes wrong! You learn through trial and error.

Here is an example of some of my work to give you an idea of what it is I am getting at.
On the left is a small library of marks from which I can pick and choose different textures that
might be appropriate. On the right are a couple of quick sketches showing me playing around
and experimenting with the marks.
To Conclude
Finding the right balance takes time and practice. I've had plenty of it and I'm still not
there yet, many of the artists we aspire to often say that they aren't happy with pieces of
artwork, that we find jaw dropping. You have to have the ambition, you have to believe your
artwork can be better but also that your artwork can get better otherwise there is either
nothing to aim for or you are attempting the impossible. In reality it is neither and any of you
can produce amazing drawings (many of you are).