How to Draw With a Pencil

A pencil that is simple and familiar to all of us is the best tool for drawing, especially for a novice artist. Of course, modern graphic tablets are not inferior to pencil and paper in any way, but in order to get inspired by the classic drawing spirit, the team of Drawingforall.net advises you not to forget about the good old art supplies.

Nevertheless, it is worth starting your training in drawing with pencils. Different materials often distract from the process of studying drawing, while a simple pencil helps you focus on the most important thing. Strict hatching and thin lines help to explore shapes, learn to see volumes, and depict them on a paper.

The pencil has existed for a long time, and now we can choose among a large number of options for softness. The letter H means that the pencil is hard, and the letter B means that the pencil is soft. The number next to the letter indicates the degree of hardness or softness of the pencil. The inscription HB means that the pencil has medium softness.

Soft pencils are best used for drawing, as they are much more expressive and do not cut a sheet of paper. In addition, with soft pencils, you can create a much wider range of tones on paper. It is very important to learn how to work with a pencil. You must learn to get the right tone and texture using different pressure forces on it and different angles.

Pencils are not only of different softness but also of different thicknesses and types. For example, in addition to classic pencils, there are also mechanical ones. They are very convenient in that you do not have to sharpen it, and the line will always remain thin. But the disadvantage is that with the help of such a pencil it is difficult to create lines of different thicknesses.

So, how to draw with a pencil?

First, decide which plane the sheet of paper will be in. It can lie either horizontally or vertically. The first method is more familiar to all of us, while the second is more often used among professional artists. Both options are good, and you can choose the one you think is necessary. The option of how you will hold the pencil while drawing depends on the location of the sheet of paper. We talked about this in our article on how to properly hold a pencil.

Now is the time to come up with what you want to depict. It can be anything, and here you are free to choose. But if you are a beginner artist, then the team of Drawingforall.net strongly advises you to begin your journey in the world of art with a study of the base. For example, sketch simple geometric shapes using the principles of perspective and shadows.

Next, you need to choose what you will draw. It also depends entirely on your desire or the goals that confront you. The team of Drawingforall.net talked about this in an article about composition. There we also examined in detail how to create a beautiful composition in a drawing correctly.

After that, you should choose the right pencil and paper. The pencil should not be too hard, as we said earlier. But it should be remembered that the softer the pencil, the more difficult it is to create light lines with it.

Further, you can make some preparatory sketches on a separate sheet of paper. This is necessary in order to understand what the future artwork will look like. But of course, you can do without this stage, if you are not going to create a very complex drawing.

With all of the above, start drawing. The first lines should be as light as possible so that in the future you do not encounter difficulties in correcting them. Each subsequent stage should be done using slightly darker lines, gradually correcting and redrawing the lines from the previous stages.

In the process of creating an artwork, be sure to consider all the basic principles of drawing, not forgetting to constantly correct the drawing where necessary. Constantly ask yourself, is everything all right at this stage? Each stage of your drawing should have a somewhat complete look.

During the process of creating an artwork, you should constantly check your sketch for accuracy. So that all parts of the artwork are proportional and correct, you must constantly look at it as a whole. You can use an eraser to make corrections in the sketch, but be extremely careful not to smudge the lines.

At the very end, add the finishing touches very carefully and gently. At this stage, you need to see as accurately as possible all remaining inaccuracies and gradually correct them, bringing the artwork to the desired look.

So now you know how to draw with a pencil. But you may face an equally critical question: what to draw?

As we said above, if you are a beginner artist, then you need to start from the very basics. You need to understand the basic concepts in order to have a kind of foundation with which you can create finished artworks. All these concepts are described as detailed as possible in a category called Basic Drawing Tutorials.

Start by exploring perspective, light, and shadow. Then learn how to draw simple geometric shapes. After that, study the proportions and anatomy of a person, gradually starting to draw a figure using our lessons.

If you do not know how to draw, then go to our category called For Beginners, where you will find a lot of super simple instructions. Try to draw a chibi girl or car for beginners for example. These and other guides from the Beginners section will help you learn the most basic principles in drawing.

If you already know how to draw, and want to improve your skills, then visit our category called People, and try to draw a girl or other complex figure. Such lessons will help to better understand the essence of drawing and will raise your artist skills to a new level.