Drawing For Beginners/Introduction

by Dorothy Furniss

DRAWING FOR BEGINNERS

INTRODUCTION

A Few Technical Hints

Drawing with a Lead Pencil

A PENCIL has many excellent qualities. It is a clean tool and easy to handle. It can be carried in the pocket and pressed into the service whenever required. Beyond sharpening, it requires no attention.

To sharpen a pencil you should pare the wood in small shavings with a sharp knife. When a small portion of the lead is exposed place the lead on a piece of paper and whittle down to a firm and not very thin point. A very sharp point is a mistake. With such a point we are inclined to dig into the paper, and thus to add to our difficulties when erasing. A thin point, moreover, snaps easily, needs constant sharpening, and therefore leads to much wasting of valuable lead.

A word or two about the position of the pencil when drawing.

We hold it, of course, as we do the pen, between the thumb and the first two fingers, and half-way up the shaft.

There is a modern fashion of holding the pen between the second and third fingers, and whatever may be said for this position in writing nothing could be advanced in its favour for drawing.

An overwhelming argument for holding the pencil between the thumb and the first two fingers is this: the hand never tires.

I have never heard an artist complain of a tired hand, though his work extended from early morning till late at night; the reason lies in the perfect balance of the tool in his hand.

Take the pencil between the first finger and the thumb and hold it lightly. Is it not perfectly balanced? Does not the point respond to the slightest motion of the two fingers? Raise the thumb. If you are holding the pencil correctly, it remains resting against the two fingers and the root of the first finger. The little finger is the pivot of the hand. The hand sweeps round in curves from the tip of the finger with perfect freedom.

Practise various touches with your pencil. For light, feather, gossamer lines hold the pencil lightly and half-way up the shaft; for rich firm effects hold the pencil firmly and lower of the shaft, rubbing the lead to and fro without removing the point from the paper; for minute or detailed drawing it will probably be desirable to hold the pencil lower still.

A medium HB pencil is generally useful. B or BB for textures, rough-coated animals, etc.

A firm-surfaced paper such as cartridge is useful both for pencil and water-colour. A polished card is not advisable, neither is a paper with a rough 'toothed' surface; the latter is apt to lend a tricky effect which is alluring, but dangerous. It is wiser to employ straightforward methods. Then you know exactly the various stages of your progress.

Do not use patent pencils with metal holders or decorated tops. The ordinary plain wooden pencil is the best tool.

Drawing with Black Chalk

Black chalk, in the shape of a pencil, is a pleasant medium, but it has one disadvantage, it is very difficult to erase. Therefore the use of chalk necessitates a certain amount of confidence and experience. In other words, do not begin your studies with chalk in preference to lead, but reserve it for your later work.

Chalk gives a rich velvety tone and never a greasy shine, the drawback of blacklead. It is delightful for quick sketches, for materials of a coarse or rough texture, for the sketching of animals, buildings, trees, and landscapes.

Chalk crumbles and breaks more easily than lead, and it white chalk gives the highest lights, and the paper itself forms the middle tone.

I know of nothing more interesting than sketching animals, dogs, rabbits, and goats with these three mediums.

White chalk needs very little pointing. It crumbles and breaks with the slightest encouragement, and the small pieces are often useful for sharpening up the edges, or touching in the brightest light.

Drawing with Coloured Chalks

Coloured chalks are very simple mediums. Often the baby begins with a box of coloured chalks as a step toward the colour-box.

Chalk does not trickle about the paper like water-colour, and is, moreover, in very direct medium.

A red berry demands red chalk; a blue bead demands blue chalk; a skein of mixed silk or wool of blue, green, and yellow demands blue, green, or yellow chalk.

By placing yellow against blue, or blue against green, or red against brown, we obtain a degree of shading, a mixing of tints, which teaches us to blend our colours. Chalks should not be applied to the paper too heavily, but laid on with a light touch. There is no need to point the chalks. By rolling the chalk in the fingers we can usually find a sharp little edge. Rub the chalk on a piece of waste paper, and on one side only; that will give a flattened side for sharp and decided drawing.

Drawing with the Brush

Drawing with the brush is more difficult than with the pencil, but you should accustom yourself to the use of both.

It is far better to paint a picture from the very beginning with a brush. Drawing first with a pencil and then with a brush necessitates changing one's tool, and readjusting one's mind. We look at a model, pencil in hand, very differently from the way we regard the same object when holding a brush. If you accustom yourself to the use of the brush you will soon find it an adaptable tool.

The artist holds the brush in the same way as he holds the pen or the pencil, and he shifts the position according to the demands of the subject.

For instance, if we are applying a broad wash of colour we should hold the brush with freedom, and fairly high on the shaft. One with a fair point, full and firm, will be necessary for drawing, A long hairy point will give a feeble line, and one too short and blunt no line at all.

A brush that is at its thickest the size of an ordinary lead pencil is a useful tool. A very small brush will prove inefficient, for in drawing with a brush a fairly bold drawing is aimed at.

If you have made a mistake cleanse the brush with fresh water, and while it is still full of this pass it over the mistake. Then complete the erasure by rubbing. Do not rub too hard or the surface of the paper will be destroyed and refuse to take colour other than a misty blur or blot.

Clean blotting-paper applied to a mistake—first lightly brushed with water—will sometimes erase it.

Sketch in light tints, not dark.

In order to get a fine point, fill your brush with colour, wipe it on a cloth, or roll the tip round on a piece of blotting-paper.

To run a good deal of colour on your paper, charge your brush with paint and put it on with rapid touches.

For the darkest shadows, wait till your paper is drying and use the water sparingly.

Drawing with Charcoal

Charcoal is by far the most fascinating, as it is the most difficult medium, therefore it will be wise to keep this for our most advanced studies.

But we must bear in mind that no medium takes the place of charcoal. If we shirk its use and adhere obstinately to the pencil we shall lose the freedom that is essential for the development of our art.

You will require a small box of Vine charcoal and Michelet paper; if you intend to use sheets of paper instead of sketch-books—and this I strongly advise—you must have also a drawing-board on which to pin the paper, and an easel. (Only by standing do we get perfect freedom for the handling of our large drawings.)

Charcoal has several irritating qualities. It snaps easily and crumbles, and it rubs away despite spraying with fixative. Nevertheless there is no medium more fascinating and more satisfying. It is equally useful for delicate effects and for those of a bold and vigorous character.

Charcoal can be used at arm's length; it is usually held—for quick sketching of big subjects—at the end and not at the middle of the shaft like the chalk or lead pencil.

It requires very little sharpening and never a point. A flattened side answers the purpose.

Rub the stick on sanded paper or shave with a knife, shaving not toward the tip and bearing away, but holding the charcoal in the left hand and along the first finger. Pare the charcoal inwardly with the grain of wood, for, as you probably know, charcoal is burnt wood.

The pith of bread (worked into the small pellets) makes a better eraser for charcoal than rubber, though putty rubber is often used.

When fixing a charcoal study stand not too near the easel, but a pace or two away, so that the spray falls in a light, even shower over your drawing. When standing too near the liquid falls in blobs and blots the drawing.