!

  Drawing is the result of an implement running

over the surface and leaving some trace of the
gesture.
"  The surface sketched upon is the support, usually, but not
always, two dimensional, and usually monochromatic (single
color or toned) paper or parchment.
"  Some drawings are predominately linear, while others are
created solely by tonal contrasts.

!  Categories of drawing:
"  1. Sketches that record an idea or provide information
about something the artist has seen.
"  2. Plans or preparatory studies for other projects, such as
buildings, sculptures, crafts, paintings, plays and films
"  3. Fully developed and self sufficient works of art.

!  Drawing is perhaps the most traditional of media.

!  There are 2 major groups of materials, called
Media: dry media and fluid media.

"  Dry media includes:

Silverpoint Chalk & Pastel
Pencil Crayon
Charcoal

"  Fluid media primarily consists of Ink

!  Silverpoint is one of the older drawing media, used extensively from
the late Middle Ages to the 16th Century.

!  Silverpoint drawings are created by dragging a silver tipped

implement (usually a silver wire, like that used for jewelry making,
held by a support) over a surface treated with a ground of bone dust
or chalk (or marble dust) mixed with gum, water and pigment.
(Gessoed masonite makes a wonderful working surface).

!  The ground is sufficiently course to allow small flecks of silver

(because silver is a soft metal) to adhere to the prepared surface as it is
drawn across.

!  As the silver oxidizes, it becomes darker.

!  Silverpoint oxidizes to the same value of darkness, so to make some

areas appear darker, it is necessary to build up lines by cross-hatching.

!  Because of the lack of sharp tonal contrasts, silverpoint drawings

appear very delicate. The medium does not allow for correction, so
the drawing must be made accurately with precision. For these
reasons, it is not much used today.
 Silverpoint drawings appear delicate, like silvery spider-webs when they are
first created. It is not until the silver has oxidized that they become distinct,
as in these pictures below, (which were obviously created earlier than when
they were photographed).

Silverpoint “pencils” Unknown artist working in

Close up view of Silverpoint
shading Silverpoint

All images courtesy of Silverpointweb.com

“Silverpoint horse
study” by Leonardo
da Vinci
!  Silverpoint was replaced by the lead pencil in the
1500’s.

!  Early pencils were metallic lead, similar to silverpoint,

but softer, and didn’t need a gesso ground, but could
be used on paper. Medieval monks, like ancient
Egyptians, ruled lines with metallic lead. It works
much like silverpoint, but is softer and doesn’t need a
gesso ground
!  Modern pencils are thin rods of graphite encased in wood or
paper.

!  Graphite is carbon, ground to dust, mixed with clay and baked.

The more clay, the harder the pencil.

!  Range is 8B (dark, oily and smudgy) to HB (similar to F, or the

common “No 2” pencil) to 8H (like drawing with a rock!).

!  Lines drawn in hard pencil can be thin and light, while those
rendered in soft graphite can be thick and dark.

!  Tones can be built up of parallel lines, smudging or stroking, all of

these producing a wide range of line and tones.
This is an example of the range of pencils, hard to soft, made using Faber-Castell
pencils, each pressed with approximately the same amount of pressure. The line running
horizontally was made using an HB pencil… approximately in the ‘middle’ between
hardness and softness. As the lines drawn to the right increase in numbers (B to 8B, the
pencils become softer, darker and oilier (‘smudge-ier’) respectively. The lines drawn to
the left become harder and lighter, H to 6H, respectively. The H pencils are used most
often by draftsmen for technical renderings. I start my rough drafts with an HB pencil,
then move on to the darker, softer pencils for shadowing.

I used to have an 8H, but I used it to unclog broken soft Prismacolor (oil/wax based
colored pencils) leads from my electric pencil sharpener, until there was nothing left of it.
“Taking of the White
Queen” by Sue
Dawe, graphite on 4-
ply Strathmore
drawing paper.

Rendered with HB,

2B, and 6B Faber-
Castell pencils, using
various techniques,
including multiple
layers of powdered
graphite, applied with
felt, over fixative, to
give the rich dark
tones.
!  Charcoal, like pencil, has a long history as a drawing implement.
Used to create images on cave walls. Initially made from crumbly
pieces of burnt wood or bone

!  Charcoal is made by the controlled charring of special hard

woods, to create a range from hard to soft.

!  As charcoal particles rub off on the ground more easily, completed

drawings must be protected by a spray of thinned varnish.

!  The nature of the support is also more evident; coarsely textured

paper will yield a grainy image, while smooth paper will provide
a clear, almost pencil-like line. Charcoal can be descriptive or
expressive, depending on its method of application.
“Moondancing” by Sue Dawe, Charcoal on “Classic” sketchpaper. This is an example of
charcoal being used for a very tight rendering.
This is an example of a
quick, loosely rendered
piece, utilizing soft
charcoal. Although the
surface, newsprint, is
smooth, you can still
see the faint pattern of
the ‘tooth’ of the
newsprint in the
shadows on the
underside of the
model’s arm.

“Dark Night of the Soul” by Sue

Dawe
!  Chalk & Pastel consist of pigment and a binder,
such as gum Arabic, shaped into workable
sticks.

!  Pastels are similar to chalk, but have a wider

range of more brilliant hues. They are made of
chalk mixed with powdered pigments and a
binder.
“Woman at Her
Toilette” by Edgar
Degas, pastel on
paper
“Untitled studies of the human
form” by Michelangelo, red chalk
on parchment.

You can see that the chalk is

harder than the pastels on the
previous page, giving a more
detailed rendering.
!  Crayon in its broadest definition includes any
drawing material in stick form, including
charcoal, chalk, pastels, and the “crayons” of
childhood.
!  Conté crayon, popular today, is similar to chalk
but with a harder texture, allowing it greater
clarity.
!  Wax crayons, like pastels, combine pigment
with a binder, in this case wax.
Catherine Kong, “Still Life,” conté crayon on Canson toned paper
“Arwen” by Emma Lee
Whitworth, wax crayon
on paper
!  Ink is the primary fluid medium, applied by the
instruments of pen and brush.

!  Ink has been used for thousands of years, and has been
found on Egyptian papyrus drawings and Chinese
scrolls

!  Originally, inks were made from the dyes of plants,

squid and octopus. By the 2nd century, blue black inks
were derived from the galls on oak trees.

!  India or China Ink (used in oriental calligraphy, and

still used today) is a solution of carbon black and water.
!  Pen & Ink:
"  Pens have been used since ancient times, made from
reeds, bird quills & metal nibs.
"  Pen and Ink drawings are essentially linear, though
the line varies widely with the nib.

!  Pen & Wash:

"  Pen lines of pure ink combined with diluted ink
applied with brush.
“Gainsborough Studios, NYC” by Melissa B. Tubbs, pen and ink drawing
Pen and Wash

Done with a Rotring art pen

(disposable technical drawing pen)
and sepia ink with plain water to
create the washes - the ink is water
soluble.

“Still life” by Vivien Blackburn, pen and wash

drawing
!  Brush & Ink:
"  The nature of the line applied with a brush is affected by the
brush itself, whether it is natural bristle or nylon, thin or thick,
flat or pointed, etc. and the characteristics of the support
"  Japanese artists are masters of brush and ink techniques. Used
for everything from works of art to everyday writing.

!  Brush & Wash:

"  Like brush and ink, but more versatile.
"  It can duplicate the linearity of brush and ink, but also can
create images through tonal contrasts. The ink can be diluted to
varying degrees for a wide tonal range.
Collection of
Chinese
calligraphy styles
from Silk Road
Enterprises
!  Cartoons:
"  Comes from the Italian word for paper, or cartone.
"  Originally, cartoons were preliminary drawings for
fresco paintings, stained glass or other projects.
"  The meaning was expanded to include humorous or
satirical drawings when a parody of fresco cartoons,
submitted for decoration of the Houses of
Parliament, appeared in an English Magazine in 1843
"  All modern cartoons rely on gross exaggeration and
distortion of natural features to ridicule a social or
political target. However, not all cartoons have
social commentary; some are just for fun or humor.
 In 1843 the English
Magazine “Punch”
published the first
“cartoons” (in the modern
sense) satirizing
Parliaments use of public
money to build Westminster
Palace for the King in lieu of
paying for soup kitchens for
the poor. Cartoons were
“submitted” by the magazine
for the many frescos and
artworks to be created for
the palace. Originally called
the Big Cut, they were later
named Cartoons by their
creator, John Leech.
Shadow and Substance was
the first cartoon Leech
created of a series of 6.

“Shadow and Substance”

by John Leech