Tools

I've been drawing solely with mechanical pencils my entire life, and found shadows to be incredibly hard. My friend had this leftover art tool set, so she gave it to me. I did some 30 second sketches with one of the graphite pencils and found my control to be severely lacking, I have no idea how to make sharp edges or smooth shadows. If anyone has any tips on how to make the pencil more manageable, I would love that. It's the 8B royal graphite from a Royal Langnickel set.

8b is not very forgiving, whatever you're shading is going to get soaked. Which is good for parts you want super dark but not something fun to blend or use for mid tones. Get yourself a set of drawing pencils or at least something you can make softer marks with like a b 2b 3 b.  it will give you more room to experiment without making things mega muddy. B

Hi Seul8r,


I just posted a drawing exercise that explains how artist pencils work in our Fellow Artist Creative group in the Assignments section. It's called the Shady box set. Here is the link.

https://line-of-action.com/index.php/group/assignment/210/222

Feel free to join us, and let me know how it goes if you try the exercise. 

I post exercises when I find a new one that works well, or if I need to review a topic. However, if there are any you wish to see, find in a book or online: Please share, and I will post them on the assignments group page. 

It may also be how you are holding your pencil. Are you resting your hand on the surface as you are drawing? Highly pigmented pencils smudge very easily because they are so rich in graphite. So using an artist hold makes a big difference.

Lastly, the best way to sharpen these woodless pencils is with heavy-grit sandpaper. I have not covered this yet in one of the group assignments/exerizes but I will soon. You can use a pencil sharpener, but as you may have noticed, it dulls the blades significantly. 

Oh! Pro tip: Keep the graphite you sand off in a corresponding jar with a lid.  

• You can sift it, add medium, and make a gritty-textured paint. You can mill down the graphite and make some very cool custom black pigments for painting. Some artists will add glitter or old powder makeup to the mix to create a unique painting palette for very cheaply. It most likely won't be light-fast. But if you are using it for studying or your sketchbook, that should not matter.


• You can use paintbrushes to apply graphite to the surface, like powdered charcoal. 


• Just make sure that if you do any of these options, you wear a mask while working with loose particles. Once the graphite is fully mixed into the base medium, it's no longer a problem. Spare your lungs, wear a mask when you sharpen your pencils.

I hope this was helpful.

All of the best,

JCML Fine Art