Understanding your materials

So now you have everything you need to start drawing you have a great smooth work surface the lighting is good your first sheet of white paper pencils rubbers and a sharpner.

 

To produce great drawings you need to understand the tools you are working with lets go over some of the basics.

Paper this is very much a personal choice and there are many different types of paper on the market.
i prefer a good brilliant white paper as this creates more impact and contrast in the drawing.
definately a matt paper as gloss and semi gloss will limit what you can achieve.

When you are drawing the graphite from the pencil will be caught in the fibres of the paper the more graphite caught the darker the image so gloss paper will give you a limited range of marks on the paper.

Textured paper is also not a good idea as once again the texture will limit what you can achieve as the paper will dictate the result.

Remember the paper must be clean crisp and in good condition at all times throughout the drawing process the only marks that you want on the paper are the ones that you have intentionally created.
it is always a good idea to have another sheet of papaer under your drawing hand while you draw so that you can prevent smudging.

Pencils
Always keep your pencils sharp never, ever draw with a blunt pencil as this will produce blunt lines marks on the surface and your drawings will look very dull. you can sharpen them or rub them on a sheet of fine sandpaper to keep sharp i prefer to twist the pencil as i draw so that it maintains a sharp point.that does take some practice but it works well otherwise just make sure that you sharpen them all the time.

Pencils come in different grades from f to 6b with f being for fine work 6b being for very black lines and marks hb is about halfway between the two.I prefer to do all of my construction lines in a 3h and then the rest of the drawing i use from hb to 6b in the second lesson we will work through different excercises with the pencils to train you in their use.

 You dont have to buy expensive pencils but the one thing to look out for is the wood that surrounds the graphite if it is poor quality you will have aproblem sharpening as the wood will crack and break.
try a few brands auntil you are comfortable with what suits you.

Erasers
Iprefer the synthetic plastic rubbers as i can cut and shape them for my use they are also fairly cheap.
I dont use a rubber for erasing lines or marks only for working back into the lines or marks that i have already created.the rubber odr eraser can be agreat tool for drawing and creating different effects.