Drawings: Pencil and Ink

Creative Bloq

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This pen and ink video is a tribute to one of my favourite artists, Chuck Close. If this inspires you to educate yourself further, head over to Schoolism. To draw in ink, you need a pen, nibs, and ink. Remember to only pull or drag a nib to make marks; pushing will cause splatters and ruin your work. Also, slight change in pressure will change the thickness of your lines. These are things you need to get used to at the outset.

Above are my favourite techniques for creating the illusion of gradations in value using high contrast black ink on white paper. Look at thick and thins. Nib pens are great for this. Draw structures in shadows with thicker lines, and structures in light with thinner lines. I like to use different pens for different things. I like Sharpies for smaller shadows and thick continuous lines. A blue writing pen might be good for clouds, waves, or anything that might look cool in blue. Consider all characteristics of your pens, like colour, thickness, etc. Be creative and stay alert for any pen that can make your work distinct.

The outstanding master of the reed pen, the Dutch artist Rembrandt , used it often in combination with the quill pen and washes to produce the richly suggestive atmospheric illusionism of his works. The reed pen never had the widespread popularity of quill or metal pens, but for special effects it has served artists admirably; for example, the 19th-century Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh in his last years used it in his drawings to produce the blunt, powerful strokes that were counterparts of the heavy brush strokes typical of many of his canvases. Until the acceptance of the modern steel pen, most Western master draftsmen used quill pens.

During the Middle Ages the quill pen was used for the fine delineations of images in manuscripts; its nibs, which can be sharpened to extreme fineness, permit the craftsman to create small linear figures or ornamental decorations on the pages or along the borders of the parchment leaves. This characteristic, combined with the flexibility of the quill point, which responds to pressure for varying the widths of lines or forming accents, made it adaptable to the diverse personal styles of draftsmen from the 15th to the end of the 19th century.

Nevertheless, artists only reluctantly adopted the steel pen, and most drawings in pen and ink done before the 20th century were still produced with quills. The steel pen is now used for drawing almost exclusively and is available in many shapes, sizes, and degrees of stiffness or flexibility. It has become standard studio equipment of the illustrator, cartoonist, and designer. Pen drawings by such outstanding painters and sculptors as Pablo Picasso , Henri Matisse , and Henry Moore demonstrate the virtue of the steel pen in producing the sharp linear definitions generally preferred by modern masters.

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Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Wash drawing , artwork in which a fine layer of colour—usually diluted ink, bistre, or watercolour—is spread with a brush over a broad surface evenly enough so that no brush marks are visible in the finished product. Usually the technique is used in conjunction with lines made by a pen or…. Ink , fluid or paste of various colours, but usually black or dark blue, used for writing and printing. Instruments include graphite pencils , pen and ink , various kinds of paints , inked brushes , wax colored pencils , crayons , charcoal , chalk , pastels , various kinds of erasers , markers , styluses , and various metals such as silverpoint.

Digital drawing is the act of using a computer to draw. Common methods of digital drawing include a stylus or finger on a touchscreen device, stylus - or finger-to- touchpad , or in some cases, a mouse. There are many digital art programs and devices. A drawing instrument releases a small amount of material onto a surface, leaving a visible mark.

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The most common support for drawing is paper , although other materials, such as cardboard , plastic, leather , canvas , and board , may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard or indeed almost anything. The medium has been a popular and fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and most efficient means of communicating visual ideas.

In addition to its more artistic forms, drawing is frequently used in commercial illustration , animation , architecture , engineering and technical drawing. A quick, freehand drawing, usually not intended as a finished work, is sometimes called a sketch. An artist who practices or works in technical drawing may be called a drafter , draftsman or a draughtsman. Drawing is one of the oldest forms of human expression within the visual arts. In Western terminology, drawing is distinct from painting, even though similar media often are employed in both tasks. Dry media, normally associated with drawing, such as chalk, may be used in pastel paintings.

Drawing may be done with a liquid medium, applied with brushes or pens. Similar supports likewise can serve both: Drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem-solving and composition. Drawing is also regularly used in preparation for a painting, further obfuscating their distinction. Drawings created for these purposes are called studies. There are several categories of drawing, including figure drawing , cartooning , doodling , and freehand.

Cross Hatching Techniques

There are also many drawing methods, such as line drawing, stippling, shading , the surrealist method of entopic graphomania in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots , and tracing drawing on a translucent paper, such as tracing paper , around the outline of preexisting shapes that show through the paper.

A quick, unrefined drawing may be called a sketch. In fields outside art, technical drawings or plans of buildings, machinery, circuitry and other things are often called "drawings" even when they have been transferred to another medium by printing. Drawing is one of the oldest forms of human expression, with evidence for its existence preceding that of written communication.

Before the widespread availability of paper, 12th-century monks in European monasteries used intricate drawings to prepare illustrated, illuminated manuscripts on vellum and parchment. Drawing has also been used extensively in the field of science, as a method of discovery, understanding and explanation.

In , astronomer Galileo Galilei explained the changing phases of the moon through his observational telescopic drawings. Drawing is used to express one's creativity, and therefore has been prominent in the world of art. Throughout much of history, drawing was regarded as the foundation for artistic practice. At this point, drawing was commonly used as a tool for thought and investigation, acting as a study medium whilst artists were preparing for their final pieces of work.

The invention of the first widely available form of photography led to a shift in the hierarchy of the arts.

Schongauer came from Alsace, and was born into a family of goldsmiths. Old Master Drawings are often reflect the history of the country in which they were produced, and the fundamental characteristics of a nation at that time. In 17th-century Holland, a Protestant country, there were almost no religious artworks, and, with no King or court, most art was bought privately.

Drawings of landscapes or genre scenes were often viewed not as sketches but as highly finished works of art. Italian drawings, however, show the influence of Catholicism and the Church, which played a major role in artistic patronage. The same is often true of French drawings, although in the 17th century the disciplines of French Classicism meant drawings were less Baroque than the more free Italian counterparts, which conveyed a greater sense of movement.

In the 20th century Modernism encouraged "imaginative originality" [20] and some artists' approach to drawing became less literal, more abstract. World-renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat helped challenge the status quo, with drawing being very much at the centre of their practice, and often re-interpreting traditional technique. Basquiat's drawings were produced in many different mediums, most commonly ink, pencil, felt-tip or marker, and oil-stick, and he drew on any surface that came to hand, such as doors, clothing, refrigerators, walls and baseball helmets.

Modern-day artists such as Tracey Emin observe the legacy and importance of drawing, engraving and print making techniques in their vast array, passed down through millennia.

The centuries have produced a canon of notable artists and draftsmen, each with their own distinct language of drawing, including:. The medium is the means by which ink, pigment or color are delivered onto the drawing surface. Most drawing media are either dry e. Watercolor pencils can be used dry like ordinary pencils, then moistened with a wet brush to get various painterly effects. Very rarely, artists have drawn with usually decoded invisible ink. Metalpoint drawing usually employs either of two metals: Paper comes in a variety of different sizes and qualities, ranging from newspaper grade up to high quality and relatively expensive paper sold as individual sheets.

Smooth paper is good for rendering fine detail, but a more "toothy" paper holds the drawing material better.

Pen and Ink Drawing - A Detailed Technique

Thus a coarser material is useful for producing deeper contrast. Newsprint and typing paper may be useful for practice and rough sketches. Tracing paper is used to experiment over a half-finished drawing, and to transfer a design from one sheet to another. Cartridge paper is the basic type of drawing paper sold in pads. Bristol board and even heavier acid-free boards, frequently with smooth finishes, are used for drawing fine detail and do not distort when wet media ink, washes are applied.

Vellum is extremely smooth and suitable for very fine detail. Coldpressed watercolor paper may be favored for ink drawing due to its texture. Acid-free, archival quality paper keeps its color and texture far longer than wood pulp based paper such as newsprint , which turns yellow and becomes brittle much sooner. The basic tools are a drawing board or table, pencil sharpener and eraser , and for ink drawing, blotting paper. Other tools used are circle compass , ruler , and set square.

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