Pencil sketching has long been an art form that is popular, and it’s no wonder. Drawing with a pencil is versatile, portable, and requires only essential art supplies. With only a handful of tools, you can make an astonishingly intricate and stunning work of art. There are many styles in that you can draw using the pencil, ranging from simple lines to more complex sketches and drawings. A variety of methods of sketching can take your pencil drawings to an entirely new level, adding more detail and refinement to your drawings you create. Here, we provide various drawing techniques you can try for your next artwork. Learn more about our top sketching tips and techniques

Selecting Your Sketching Equipment

The shades, textures and shadows you are able to create on your page are not confined by the range of techniques you can employ. If you don’t know the proper techniques for your equipment, you could limit yourself to a certain extent. In general, lighter graphite pencils can provide a darker lighter, more soft tone, and harder graphite can provide a harder line and a more pointed tip. To make the most of your work using a variety of pencil choices within your sketching tool kit is essential.

Hatching & Cross-Hatching

These techniques are extremely popular and effective methods to enhance sketches by shading. When it comes to well-known pencil drawing techniques that will level up your sketches, hatching & cross-hatching is on the top of the list of skills you need to master. The process of hatching is basically a series of lines drawn along the primary lines of drawing in order to produce shadow and depth. The lines should not touch. Cross-hatching is a series of lines used in the same way, but where they intersect. The closer these lines, more dark the shading in your sketch will be.Stippling involves the process of adding dots for shading and depth, similar to cross-hatching and hatching.

Scribbling

Everyone has drawn idle scribbles on paper during the wait during a telephone call. Scribbling can be drawing method that can be extremely efficient. The distinctive features of a sketch made with scribbles can be identified by the erratic, irregular and certainly not straight lines in the drawing. The random movement of the paper can result in an image that is somewhat disjointed and the more irregular lines that are drawn closer together, the darker they will appear. Adjust the tone the pencil creates by changing the amount of pressure you put on it. To create smooth transitions you can draw small circular strokes that create a more blended look. It’s crucial to keep in mind that you shouldn’t draw tiny circles that have visible lines.

Creating Highlights

Just as you would add shading to add shadows and depth for your drawings, you can also add highlights. Highlights are a great way to show the direction your light source is coming from and can add detail, showing reflective surfaces. One way to create this effect is by using an eraser that removes some of the pigment , or shading to create lighter areas that indicate the absence of darkness.The practice of rendering takes the above technique to a new step. Rendering is basically a method to pencil sketching where you apply graphite on your paper, and then remove it with your eraser, to give the effect of highlighting. It’s a continuous procedure of applying and removing the graphite that results in the appearance of a soft, almost blurred effect.

the observational method as well as drawing what we think we see. Remember Task 1? One solution to this problem is drawing lines to observe how the facial features line up. This technique can help you to understand how the hairline, eyes, cheekbones, nose as well as the cheekbones. interact with one another. Draw diagonal and vertical lines to gain a better understanding about how the location of the nose connects with the position of the chin, mouth and as well as how the angle of the eye interacts with the neck and jawline; and the relation between the eye and the edge of the nose…I will show you how to do this. Knowing the proportions of the face is one of the most important aspects to consider when preparing a self-portraits.

Tips:

Charcoal or graphite are both employed for this purpose- I will show you how using both! The graphite is good for reflections and midtones and charcoal gives fantastic cast shadows and will give the dark contrast you are looking for. If you are using white paper, that is the lightest option, so save that for the extreme highlights you observe on your subject. The environment or setting in which the subject is drawn always affects the subject itself. The impact can be intense with reflective objects so you must take into account this when preparing your still lifes to complete this task.

Plus the photograph is 2 three-dimensional, and you’re translating it into a second 2-dimensional surface, which is your drawing. Nothing is better than the real thing though, so keep those real objects in their proper order in front of you. Accuracy of the shapes of the reflections is important when drawing metal objects , but when using cutlery this is kept easy since you can set up so that none of the actual objects are reflected! The contrast of reflections is vital to an accurate drawing, ranging from bright white highlights to black (or almost black). Also, take a careful look at those objects you’ve set up. Can you see the sharp and clean edges of reflections? You need to make this drawing bold