03-18-2023, 05:58 AM
Okay, quick explainer on my current approach to pencils. It's built around the things I like and my cans/cant's. It's important you gauge what you like and can do to find yours.
Things I like
- I love the look of pencil on paper. I crave roughness, not pieces that could be done with the PS gradient tool.
Right now I only blend with quick fingertip swipes when I need to lighten something, or when I want to lay a darker base on a large area which will receive dark hatching. I guess we can say I also do rudimentar edge control by smudging, but that's not on purpose, edges get smeared as I draw and in the end I just re-sharpen what I want by redrawing and erasing.
The hatching is supposed to communicate more than values. The direction is all about planes I want to emphasise. Often they follow the longest edge of an area, going counter when I want to flatten it.
To blend in values or create softer areas, I shade in a circular motion.
- It's obvious by now, but I also dig sculptures and geometric plane transitions, so I bring that to my work. I break curves into straight lines, I pretend the face is a lower poly sculpture and represent planes accordingly. I'm omitting, exaggerating and compressing values in name of making it more geometric.
Things I can and can't do
- I can't really do lines as outlines.
The farther they are of my initial anchor point, more off the mark they become. I can't jump large distances in the canvas, I need a firm handhold to move onto whatever next part of a drawing or it'll come apart, quite literally. That's volume to me. So in faces, for example, I do a vague skull for initial placement then go lidar on it, exploring the curvature in veeeery light values, darkening as I progress. For other things I'm also a bit topographical, swooshing volume lines where I can, trying to find the fine balance where they act as guidance but don't get so crowded I can't make sense of what I'm looking at.
- Also can't do that outlining different values then filling in technique due the same issue above.
- I'm not good at gauging values. I place values relatively to workaround it for now, but a more absolute perception of values is something I feel is within my reach (I'm pretty good at breaking colors into more basic hues) and it'd be of great use because having a bad eye for values, I get them very wrong if jumping from lightest to the darker ones. Fudged countless drawings due this!
- I have an okay sense of curvature.
I work these into a drawing as early as possible so I can do the above. There are some gifs in my early posts, one showing a smiling woman's portrait. I still work like that, maybe less reliant on drawing skull landmarks because I'm pretty used to them now, but still light to dark, follow the curves.
Take note of how I didn't mention style. Personal style is something that emerges from chasing the things you like, so it's not so much a matter of emulating someone's work but identifying what you like in their work, why, then freely trying all the things that tickle your fancy. You build skills with the things you want to do in mind, but you don't sweat so much style itself is coming first, except when style is the subject you're studying.
Also, beware of style in studies. It can hide weaknesses and drawing vices. It's best to approach it carefully once you're certain you got a good grasp on the tidbit you're studying.
Things I like
- I love the look of pencil on paper. I crave roughness, not pieces that could be done with the PS gradient tool.
Right now I only blend with quick fingertip swipes when I need to lighten something, or when I want to lay a darker base on a large area which will receive dark hatching. I guess we can say I also do rudimentar edge control by smudging, but that's not on purpose, edges get smeared as I draw and in the end I just re-sharpen what I want by redrawing and erasing.
The hatching is supposed to communicate more than values. The direction is all about planes I want to emphasise. Often they follow the longest edge of an area, going counter when I want to flatten it.
To blend in values or create softer areas, I shade in a circular motion.
- It's obvious by now, but I also dig sculptures and geometric plane transitions, so I bring that to my work. I break curves into straight lines, I pretend the face is a lower poly sculpture and represent planes accordingly. I'm omitting, exaggerating and compressing values in name of making it more geometric.
Things I can and can't do
- I can't really do lines as outlines.
The farther they are of my initial anchor point, more off the mark they become. I can't jump large distances in the canvas, I need a firm handhold to move onto whatever next part of a drawing or it'll come apart, quite literally. That's volume to me. So in faces, for example, I do a vague skull for initial placement then go lidar on it, exploring the curvature in veeeery light values, darkening as I progress. For other things I'm also a bit topographical, swooshing volume lines where I can, trying to find the fine balance where they act as guidance but don't get so crowded I can't make sense of what I'm looking at.
- Also can't do that outlining different values then filling in technique due the same issue above.
- I'm not good at gauging values. I place values relatively to workaround it for now, but a more absolute perception of values is something I feel is within my reach (I'm pretty good at breaking colors into more basic hues) and it'd be of great use because having a bad eye for values, I get them very wrong if jumping from lightest to the darker ones. Fudged countless drawings due this!
- I have an okay sense of curvature.
I work these into a drawing as early as possible so I can do the above. There are some gifs in my early posts, one showing a smiling woman's portrait. I still work like that, maybe less reliant on drawing skull landmarks because I'm pretty used to them now, but still light to dark, follow the curves.
Take note of how I didn't mention style. Personal style is something that emerges from chasing the things you like, so it's not so much a matter of emulating someone's work but identifying what you like in their work, why, then freely trying all the things that tickle your fancy. You build skills with the things you want to do in mind, but you don't sweat so much style itself is coming first, except when style is the subject you're studying.
Also, beware of style in studies. It can hide weaknesses and drawing vices. It's best to approach it carefully once you're certain you got a good grasp on the tidbit you're studying.