The Fundamental Facts about

Drawing

COURSE: DRAWING
A Jacobson Production

Basic Vocabulary
Contour Drawing: a drawing that
defines the edges and surface ridges of
an object.
Flat Line: a dark heavy line quality
caused by heavy pressure of the pencil
on the paper.
Accent Line: A line quality that
changes from light to dark as it curves
over the edges of and object.
Which of these to line do you think you should strive

Basic Vocabulary
Contrast: The difference between the light
and dark values in an artwork.
Value: the element of art that describes the
darkness or lightness of an object; also
value depends on how much light a surface
reflects.
Chiaroscuro: the arrangement of light and
shadow, this technique was introduced by
Italian artists during the Renaissance Period
and used widley by Baroque artists.

Basic Vocabulary
Perspective: a system of drawing that
creates the illusion of depth and volume on a
two dimensional surface.
Proportion: The principle of art concerned
with size relationships of one part to another.
Gesture: a line drawing that is done
quickly to represent movement.
Thumbnail sketch: a series of small
drawings done to come up with ideas.
Rough Out/Draft: a more detail sketch that
starts to put more detail into a drawing and
works out visual problem prior to putting

Basic Drawing Tools

Understanding the Pencil

Pencils come in
different grades
of lead.
B pencils get
softer as the
number gets
higher.
2B, 3B, 4B, 5B will
get very dark

H pencils have a harder

lead
2H common pencil you
use everyday
3H, 4H, 5H, 6H will be
very light.

Types of Erasers

Types of Erasers
Pink Eraser: best when used on a sturdy, smooth
paper. It is slightly abrasive and unsuitable for
paper that has a lot of tooth

Pencil Type Eraser: These are great when you need

to erase something in a small area because they can
be sharpened to a point.
Gum Erasers very soft erasers that tend to be sort of
crumbly when used. The crumbs help to absorb the
graphite

Types of Erasers
The kneaded eraser is the primary type of eraser that
most graphite/charcoal artists use.
It picks up the graphite without smearing or damaging
the paper

Vinyl Erasers- Vinyl erasers are made of soft

white vinyl. These erasers are the toughest of
the bunch. If not used properly, they can easily
tear paper. Vinyl erasers can erase almost
anything including ink. Many draftsmen prefer
vinyl erasers because of their ability to erase
cleanly and completely.

Types of Drawing Media

(medium is singular)

Instruments include various H or B graphite

pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, color pencils,
crayons, charcoal, chalk, conte, chalk pastels, oil
pastels & marker.
Each Assignment will explore the history and
characteristics of each of these drawing media.
As an artist you will discover what each media
can do. The goal is to find out what type of media
you like best.

Different Pencil Grips

Learning to hold a pencil differently can help you create various typed of lines that will improve your drawing
quality.

Techniques to Improve Your

Drawing

Drawing Tool Exercise :Measuring

Techniques
You think of a pencil
for drawing and
writing.
A pencil can be used to
measure things.
In art when we try to
get objects the correct
size we call the
proportion.

Measuring Techniques
You use your
pencil and thumb
to measure
objects by sliding
the thumb to the
top of the pencil
(A), close one
eye, place pencil
top on the object
and slide thumb
down (B).
Compare the
distances.

Measuring Techniques
You will use this to..
To help you determine approximate angles of objects.
To assist you to compare sizes of objects
To make objects look more realistic.

Demonstration & time to practice

measuring and sighting from the
skulls.

Good examples

Self evaluation

1. How did the stick help you?

2. What did you notice using the stick
that you didn't first see?

Using a View Finder

Sometimes a still life may have many objects in it. Its difficult to
know what to draw and what not to draw. A viewfinder is a helpful
tool that Crops out the part if the image you dont want to draw.

Using a View Finder

1. Its easy to make- just

use scissors to cut a
rectangular hole in a
sheet of paper.
2. This tool allows you
to isolate only a
section of a object to
draw
3. If you dont have a
view finder use your
hands.

You can also use your cell phone. Use the camera to zoom in on only part
of the image you want to draw. Crop and save the photo.

Using your phone

Does you composition look like this?

Top of your camera

Bottom of your camera

Now on to the next exercise

Time to re-wire your brain.

CREATIVITY & YOUR BRAIN

Your left brain controls your right hand & your right brain controls your left
hand. .

Why do you think artists need to use both sides of their brain?

Continuous Line Drawing

What?
The idea here is to create a
drawing where you never
lift your drawing tool from
the paper.
WHY???
A Continuous Line Drawing is an
exercise to help us focus on the
line direction.
It makes you focus more on
looking at what you are drawing.

Demonstrations and
Continuous Line Drawing of the still
life

Why do we want to focus more on what we

see when we are drawing?
What we think ( left brain) verses what we really see (right brain)

DRAWING EXERCISE 4 : Continuous line drawing of your face

Self evaluation
1. How did not being able to pick up
your pencil make you feel?
2. What do you notice that was better
about your drawing than your
thought it was going to be?

Blind Contour Drawing

Blind Contour Drawing

WHY?
Blind contour drawing is an
excellent way to train you
to
train your hand and eye to
work together for drawing.
Increase your focus on detail
To draw what it really sees
rather than what it thinks it
sees.

Practice: Blind Contour Drawing of Skull

How?
Your eyes are not allowed
to look at the paper.
Your eye and hand must
move very slowly as
one.
At no time should you
look at your paper as you
draw.

Practice

Draw the skull again keep your eye on the

object not the paper, dont pick up your
marker, draw slow and LARGE as big as the
paper.

Questions to Ponder

1. What turned out better than you thought?

2. What things did you notice MORE about
the shape of the skull- because you
absolutely had to focus on the skull?

Positive and Negative Space

Negative Space
What is Positive and Negative Space &
How do I learn to see it?

TRY THIS. Hold your hand up in front of your

face. Squint and look at the space between the
fingers. Notice the wavy lines and organic shapes.
If you cant see this space try shifting your view
from the hand to the background and back and
forth. Your logical mind will fight you on this.