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| Self Portrait Graphite on Wove Paper Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
–John Singer Sargent
Oh! No, no. It is not so. Once we get our hand swiftly moving on a
paper, the pencil starts working for us and for the person being portrayed.
What the master artist meant to say was that no one can draw a perfect
portrait.
How to Draw Pencil drawings, the portrait
paintings, of film stars, are one of the most favoured subjects of all of the
artists.
When at the age of 40, as
a by-product of ‘spare time available’, an artist in me had started waving his
sides, from left to right and vice versa, I took a pencil in my hand, even if I
had vowed not to do that at any point in time in my life. Here we can see how the master artists like Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres had depicted his art of the portrait painting.
Yes, I had decided not to look at the world of art. The only compulsion for doing so was this: I was married and my better half had a wonderful artistic disintegration with the art of painting. But everyone's time comes. After two decades of my struggle-full and blissful married life, I had to find out some element of courage within me. Thus start doing paintings where the show of my first rebel against the domestic freedom-less-ness I was suffering from. I think this is enough about me. Now let us start the real talks. Here are some articles which would throw some light on the Art of Pencil Drawing.
PENCIL DRAWING: THE A B C D OF
PAINTINGS
This article is not designed to teach the reader how to be an artist in
pencil drawing, nor is it step-by-step instruction on how to draw on paper or
canvass. My humble endeavour here is to declare that the pencil is the first
tool an artist should befriend with were he or she seriously interested in
going ahead in the art of painting.
LEARN PENCIL DRAWING ARTISTICALLY
Pencil drawing is simple marks of pencil on paper. But these simple
markings are very expressive and artistic. When a beginner takes a pencil
in his or her hand and starts putting lines or dots on paper, he or she feels
deeply rooted in the work.
There are techniques to learn. But you can learn it by practice only,
and not by hearing or seeing the lectures on the subject. By travelling on the
road of the process of constant practice, you would learn many things like, how
to sharpen the pencil, how to get the sharp edge or thick edge of the pencil,
where to put pressure in drawing and where to keep it low, whether to use white
or coloured paper, whether to use graphite pencil, charcoal or coloured pencils
and how to do creative drawing.
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| The violinist Niccolo Paganini Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Pencil-1819 Louvre Museum, Paris |
CREATIVE PENCIL SHADING and LINE DRAWING
In pencil drawing, shading is an aspect that exploits an artist’s best
skills. The creative shading of a pencil can create a picture as
beautiful as in any other medium like watercolour and oil colour. Shading
in pencil drawing is just like putting different tonal values of colours.
By selecting a proper colour and applying that colour in different tonal values, a painter animates his or her mental images on paper. Notes of music might be unpleasant, if not played with care; and it fails to impress. Such is the case with line drawing in the art of painting. While drawing the light of dark lines by the tip of a pencil the artist varies the weight of the line. It is done by lofting the pencil or pressing it a little bit harder. In pencil drawing the artist exploits the use of pencil, executing it by light line or weight.
PENCIL PORTRAITS: Drawing Eyes, Nose
and Lips
In order to do a perfect pencil portrait an artist needs to
study the subject first; here subject being the face of a person whose portrait
is to be drawn. Eyes and nose posing crucial identity of a person, we should
draw it realistically. It is important to know about the size and shapes of
both eyes. Artists generally believe that the lines while drawing the nose
should be hard. In fact, the nose requires more shading work.
While using pencil drawing as the medium of communicating through the art of painting, the artists have to keep several factors in mind. The major is the appropriate balance of lines and shading. Shading is the technique of varying the tonal values on the base, usually the paper, to represent the shade of the subject itself as well as the placement of the shadows falling on the opposite side of the subject. Pencil drawing is simple marks of pencil on paper. But these simple markings are very expressive. When the artist or a beginner takes a pencil in his or her hand and starts putting lines, dots or shading on the paper, he or she feels deeply rooted in the work.
Drawings of animals, pets, horses and dogs
While doing all types of paintings or drawings, an artist enjoys a
poetic license, a license to use his or her artistic freedom. In the case of
portrait drawing or painting, this facility is withdrawn. The person whose
portrait is being done would insist on a cent per cent similarity with his or
her face. A tiny dot here or a small mistake of lining there would turn the
face a different one.
Once an artist put the first stroke of a pencil or a charcoal stick on
paper, things start happening. The pet you are drawing remains only the base
unlike in portrait painting of a man or a woman. At this point in time, the artist
is not only the spectator or an observer of the object; he or she becomes the
governor of the situation. The artist makes out a mental picture of the animal
sitting before his or her eyes, and then the mental picture starts being
animated on the paper. Thus while making a portrait of animals, a horse, a dog
or a cat, the artist owns a room for using artistic prowess.
The Art: You need not have previous experience
of any sort of drawing or painting before starting the pencil drawing. It
hardly matters that you have missed out on art classes when you were in
school. You can very well learn how to draw. You can start the journey to
the land of art called ‘painting’ by just taking a pencil in your hand and
the passion for the art in your heart. The art does not look at the age or
position of a person entering the field. Only the person should have the fire
to enter the arena of art. Pencil drawing is the gate.
The Technique: Once you have taken the decision to
learn the pencil drawing; the second step is to decide about the materials to
use in the process. To remain cool-headed, just ignore most of the things told
and lectured about the subjects. And avoid reading more ‘How-to’s. To think
about the types of pencils, like graphite pencil, Charcoal stick or coloured
pencils would be interesting in the days ahead. You just start with a good set
of a pencil; say three pencils of different grade and white papers. The
coloured paper is also an alternative but keep it for the future.
Get, Set and Go: The first thing that you would be doing is quite simple. It can be just putting off some markings with your pencil on the blank white paper. Do it, and do it without any preplanning. That’s the real way. The art is not like the water coming from a designed pipeline laid by the local authorities; it is like the water gushing out of a stream; so forceful, so fresh, and so wild. And after going through this fresh and wild experience, let us go to another type of drawings.
PENCIL DRAWING: Of Dogs and Pets
How to Portray Pet: While drawing the face of your pet, you have
no such risk. It is because the pet dog or cat would not mind it; even if you
make serious mistakes in its portrait. But that facility hardly relieves the
artist from his or her responsibility, to be honest to the art.
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