Drawing with Graphite
Kerri Dixon 
Everything you need to get started drawing with graphite
DRAWING WITH GRAPHITE
Graphite is a beautiful medium that I love
using to create very detailed drawings in
those delicate grey tones it is best for.
Equipment I use
Caran D’ache Grafwood
H, 2b, 8b
Tortilon - Blending Stump
Kneadable Eraser
Tombow Mono Zero Eraser
Soft Brush
Sharpener
Mechanical Pencil
Additional Items - Glassine paper, Sanding Block
Paper: Arches Hot Pressed Watercolour Paper 185gsm, Matt Board,
any drawing paper that is not a shiny smooth, needs some sort of tooth.
Graphite is probably the most common drawing medium that there is.
A graphite pencil, also called a lead pencil, is a type of pencil in which a thin graphite core is embedded in a shell of other material. The pencil shell is typically wooden, but can be made of plastic or recycled paper. And they do not contain lead, only graphite and clay.
Pro’s
Great for fine detail
Doesn’t smudge as easy as charcoal
Large range of pencil values available
Can erase quite easily
Very portable and clean
Con’s
Hard to get black dark’s
Dark’s have a shine to them
Slower to work with than charcoal
Not ideal for large drawings
GRADES OF LEAD
Graphite Pencils (are measured in hardness between high H’s the hardest and high B’s, the softest leads)
This is a list of how the range goes from lightest to darkest or hardest to softest.
9H, 8H, 7H, 6H, 5H, 4H, 3H, 2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, 6B, 7B, 8B, 9B
The number beside each letter represents the level of hardness or softness. So an 8B pencil will be softer and darker than a 3B pencil and an 8H pencil will be lighter and harder than a 2H pencil.
The harder (H) pencils produce lighter/harder lines while the softer (B) pencils produce darker/softer lines. The softer pencils leave more graphite on your paper which causes them to appear darker. The softer the pencil, the smoother the graphite.
So the hard pencils are ideal for drawings where you want accurate straight lines without too much blending eg. architectural buildings While the softer pencils are better for drawings that require more blending eg, skin or fur.
TOOLS FOR BLENDING
Blending graphite is how you achieve all those beautiful variations of grey. You can achieve a huge range from a very subtle light grey through to a very dark, it is however not possible to achieve a true black due to the greyness of graphite.
Cotton Tips - Depending on the paper you are using will depend on how well these work to blend. Some papers work better with different blending implements so it’s good to experiment, then when you find a paper you love to work on, stick with it.
Tortilon Blending Stump - My favourite form of blending is with a stump, it is ideal for small precise areas and is used to create all my grey tones in a drawing.
ERASERS
Kneadable erasers are ideal for subtle highlights, where as the tombo mono zero
retractable eraser is better for stronger highlights.
DRAWING SURFACES
You can pretty much use graphite on most surfaces. However I like it to have some tooth to it so that the graphite adheres to it better.
In saying this you can still use smooth watercolour papers like Arches Hot Pressed, which is my favourite for achieving fine details for realism.
I am starting to experiment with drawing straight to super smooth canvas and then adding a clear over the top. This is to prevent needing my graphite drawings framed. I am also trialling this for charcoal as well. I have added resin over a graphite drawing I did but after a number of years it now seems to be yellowing, so I would not recommend this.
STYLES
It is quite common to see most graphite artists doing realistic drawings and hyper-realism. This is because you can get so much accuracy with graphite but it also doesn’t lend itself to being really fluid and abstract, that is better left to charcoal.
Here’s a few master graphite artists from around the world and you can see their work is very similar to each other in regards to the realism, even though there styles are different.
ADONNA KHARE (Click image to go to website)
DIRK DZIMIRSKY (Click image to go to website)
PEZ (Click image to go to website)
PAUL LUNG (Click image to go to website)
As you can see with the above master graphite artists, you can achieve the mo
st amazing drawings with such a simple medium. This is probably why I love graphite so much.
This month has been graphite month in my online art membership THE CREATIVE BARN and we
have had a lot of fun with it, from recorded tutorials, to learning the basics and following along with me, drawing this cut little pug in our monthly zoom draw along session.
If you think you might be interested in joining THE CREATIVE BARN, then why not join the waitlist RIGHT HERE so you are the first to know when I'm taking students again, plus you'll receive a FREE online graphite tutorial while your waiting.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE WAITLIST
Kerri xx
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Categories: : art, educational, graphite
