Pencil Drawings - 5 Top Tips to Improve Your Drawing Technique

Whether you are an amateur or professional artist, here are 5 top tips to help improve your technique in your pencil drawings and creating a higher standard of artwork.

Tip 1: Pencils

I believe the quality of the pencil you use determines the standard of the artwork you create. I recently changed the range of pencils I've been using to the Faber-Castell 9000 Design set. In my opinion, these pencils provide a much higher quality of finish, easier to blend and far less brittle when sharpening. Overall, a quality pencil with a great finish!

Tip 2: Erasers

I have found that the STAEDTLER Mars Plastic eraser is a very good product providing a very clean finish (less smudging). As long as it is kept to a sharp point you can pin-point the area you require erasing much more effectively. I have also used this eraser for drawing into the shaded areas.

Tip 3: Paper

On the recommendation of the company who print my pencil drawings, I use solely acid-free paper from the Daler Rowney 130gsm 80lbs range. This is an off-white paper as cartridge paper can cause problems to arise when using Giclee printing (the form of printing I use to re-produce my artwork), because the printer finds it difficult to work with white tones.

Tip 4: Blending

Since I've been creating detailed pencil drawings and portraits, I've found that one of the most difficult features to achieve is accurate skin tones. When I was younger and far less experienced my way of blending and softening tones was to use my fingers (very messy and no control!) Lately, I've found a cheap and cleaner alternative in the use of cotton wool buds. Not the thick ended buds widely available at most chemists, but the fine pointed cosmetic removal buds (initially stolen from my girlfriend as an experiment) which are much better at getting in closer to a particular point. These can be purchased from a well known supermarket chain for as little as �1 for two boxes...bargain!

Tip 5: Cleanliness

Above all else keep your artwork clean. If you are right handed, work from left to right to avoid smudging. Also, you can put a plain piece of paper under your hand to cover any already drawn areas. Keep drinks away from your pencil drawings. There's nothing more infuriating than a tea stain on your artwork (speaking from personal experience!). This can be a costly process to remove during the printing of your artwork (but at least it can be removed with the Giclee printing process).

Good luck and happy drawing...

Drawing Courses:

Pencil Drawing Made Easy
What really makes this course stand out from the rest is that it goes much deeper than any of the other courses I have seen. There are even classes on how to draw material textures and hands. For more info click here

Drawing Secrets Revealed
Incorporates brain research and proven drawing techniques to provide the more organized, easy-to-grasp training for artists who want to improve their drawing skills. For more info click here

IllusionMage
Create your own 3D animations. For more info click here

Realistic Pencil Portrait Mastery Home Study Course
A "truly" step-by-step guide showing you how to achieve a certain outcome with helpful descriptions. For more info click here


About the Author:
Dave Harris Art offers both a portrait upon commission service and a range of limited edition Giclee prints of my own pencil drawings, including sports stars, movie and military artwork.

If you have found these top tips to be useful, please take the time to visit my website to see how I've used these techniques to improve my own pencil drawings and portraits and I hope they will aid you in producing a higher quality finish to your artwork. http://www.daveharrisart.co.uk

Article Source: Pencil Drawings - 5 Top Tips to Improve Your Drawing Technique