Supplies
Tools
- Rubber
- Pencil type B
- Blue ball-point pen
Materials
- Sketch paper
- Heavy short grained paper (223g/m²)
- Tracing paper
- Pliers
Directions
Sketch
- Choose one or more elements (photographs, drawings, stamps or paintings) that will be be part of your composition and arrange them on sheets of sketch paper or a sketch book. NB: If needs be, don't hesitate to take a photo yourself that you can then trace.
- Add some shading to your sketch: try every direction of possible hatching. The more of this you do, the more you obtain different nuances to give your sketch some depth.
- Trace the outline of the sketch or draw it directly on the tracing paper (so that it could be rubbed out easily) if you want a bigger drawing.
Final drawing
- Copy out the drawing on the tracing paper onto the heavy paper.
- Begin the piece with the ball-point pen, first with the outline and then with the shading: try to only give your outlines more depth through the cross hatching technique.
Tips
It's impossible to get rid of any errors you make once you have started with the ball-point pen. To make sure you are not disappointed after several hours of work:
- Dedicate the necessary time to the sketching, think about the separate elements of the composition and work on them again if necessary.
- Regularly step back and look at your drawing from a couple of meters away to get an idea of the "bigger picture".