Pencil Drawing

This pencil drawing was sketched from life while the subject was sleeping.


I used a mechanical pencil with 0.5mm 2b lead for this for convenience but I do often use normal pencils or leaseholders. Mechanical pencil is good for maintaining sharp point always without the lead going dull with the hassle to sharpen it. I drew this on moleskine watercolor sketchbook. Usually I wounld not use watercolor sketchbook for pencil drawing but it worked out well with the extra texture of the paper surface allowing the graphite marks to get darker easier than usual.

I started out by very lightly laying on the general large shapes of the head. I trust my eyes to make marks just as I see it, instead of relying on any understructure formula of drawing circles or making center lines etc.

I began scribbling in darker marks with bit more authority on top of the light initial marks established in the previous step. I still tried not to dig in too much with the pencil for the darkest darks because that would need to wait till later, especially since darkest marks would be hard to erase if I have to. At any rate, I didn’t erase much for this pencil drawing. Maybe just once or twice. I usually don’t use the eraser at all for a very rapid pencil drawing. Honestly, I think erasing in drawing, especially for quick sketches feels a bit like cheating. Hence often times I use ink or ball point pen for sketches like these. But need to be aware that inks, especially regular ball point pen inks from BIC or something are not archival and would fade or discolor overtime. So I try to make it a pencil drawing using archival paper as much as possible. Using inks however can enable you to get much darker for the darkest darks and achieve better contrast in values. But then for drawings, especially for sketches, I don’t find it as appealing to make it so accurate with stark naturalistic values. Limited value can add a nice mystery in a pencil drawing.

I then just continued refining things tighter and tighter. Since the mechanical pencil cannot make broad marks for shading, I used the point of lead to achieve sort of cross-hatching marks for shading. I try to think about the forms as I make these hatchlings and make them wrap around the form instead of the hatching away at random directions. I didn’t shade in the hair mass to leave the pencil drawing with more focus and emphasis on the face. I tried to finish the hand as quickly as possible then resumed on the face because once the hand moves you can’t really keep working on it anymore or it becomes much more difficult. For this reason, hands are always more challenging than the head, as when the head moves everything is still in tact on the head and the eyes, nose , or the mouth don’t move out of place. For hands, the joints and fingers are very moveable so once they move out of the position, it’s pretty hard to get it back to look same or even close to how it was again. Especially for doing quick pencil drawing like this of a woman sleeping and not consciously posing for me, the hand can move without any warning at any time, so it’s important for me to get the hand down first.

I also try to make the hands as is without exaggerating its pose. Many artists enjoy making the hands more stylish or in elegant pose but I think that’s cheesy, including hands in John Singer Sargent’s portraits which he is known for painting king elongated fashionable looking hands of aristocrats. I believe in avoiding any kind of over-exaggerations and just jotting down just as is, especially for a pencil drawing like this being about quickly capturing the moment.

I love the pureness in the art of pencil drawing. The spontaneity of observation and interpretation. It also tends to show the painters’ true skills especially for very quick sketches, without being able to hide initial errors like you can with paintings, painting over and over in layers. I also love the sound of pencil drawing on the paper. It is like music to my ears. You can hear it on the video as it is not a time lapse but unedited in real time.

For pencil drawing on good papers, you must use gum erasers. Also known as kneaded erasers. If you use regular hard erasers, it would damage the paper. The kneaded erasers are also fun to work with and you can actually sculpt with it too.

In order to do quick pencil drawing very well, you have to already have a very competent level of draughtsmanship. If you are a beginner, it could take many years of studying the figure, practicing life drawings and figure drawings. It’s actually much more difficult to do a convincing rapid pencil drawing than to do a long pose refined academic drawing. Quickness actually matters in my opinion. It’s not always about the answer but how efficiently you got there. For example for a mathematical addition problem 26 + 34, a person named John without any knowledge or unlearned in math would draw 26 sticks and 34 sticks then count them all up for the answer but another person named Tom, more skilled and learned in math would quickly come up with the answer in his head. Although both of them would end up with the same answer, we would all want to be like Tom, not John.

Keeping a sketchbook and constantly pencil drawing the people you see in public places, is a great way to improve your overall skills. The people will always be moving and never still, so this actually forces you to think more 3 dimensionally which is really a great practice. I recommend carrying a small sketchbook and a mechanical pencil at all times and draw draw draw. Unlike in music, “smart practice” doesn’t really apply in drawing and painting, but a lot of it is just about mileage-the more you draw and familiarize yourself with that hands on pencil on paper feel, the better you’d get. Much of the learnings can’t be explained or pinpointed and taught but just about personally getting comfortable and used to with your hands by feels. Yourself wouldn’t really be able to explain that either. Feel of your hands holding the pencil or brush and marking on the paper or the canvas-make it all part of you to the point where you don’t even feel like you are holding the pencil or the brush with your hand but by heart.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this pencil drawing post. Here is the video.