30
votes
How can I avoid smudging my pencil drawings?
You can use an artist's bridge as well. It's basically a long metal ruler with either rubber feet at either end or a thin foam on the bottom. You can easily make your own out of a sturdy ruler as well....
- 401
25
votes
Accepted
What can I do to ensure I only erase the smaller details without affecting the area around it?
Get an erasing shield/stencil:
An erasing shield is a metal stencil that can mask off the parts of your drawing you want to protect, while exposing only the area you want to erase, so you can erase ...
- 2,615
23
votes
Accepted
How can I make a sketch under a watercolour painting and have it not be seen?
Watercolor is, by its very nature, a transparent medium and so it becomes really quite difficult to manage this. However, there are a couple of things you can do to help:
Draw very lightly and then ...
- 3,443
21
votes
Accepted
Differences between HB pencils
H and B relate to the hardness or softness of the pencil's graphite. "H" stands for "hard" and "B" stands for "black" with "F" right in the middle ...
- 3,496
17
votes
How can I draw right angles with just a ruler?
You can use the 3-4-5 method of creating right angles.
Begin with a construction line and mark a zero point and a 3 point. Make a mark. Notice that I'm not using units of measure. You can use ...
- 7,231
15
votes
Accepted
How can I draw single hairs on a black background with charcoal or graphite?
The flocculent beauty of the work you show is not that the artists drew a single hair (that would never achieve the effect) the beauty came from the artists layering one drawn hair "over" another and ...
- 2,956
15
votes
How do I prevent pencil colour drawings from fading away while I'm still drawing it?
Building on @Joachim's comments above, yes, the direct sunlight can affect the color and make them dull. Hence, when you are not working, you should store the paper in dark
(or use some protective ...
- 151
14
votes
Accepted
How can I draw realistic hair with pencil?
There is a natural temptation when drawing hair to think in terms of individual hairs and equate these to pencil lines. However this tends to get in the way as there is no reasonable way to draw every ...
- 1,979
13
votes
What is the proper way to sharpen a pencil?
The word "proper" is in quotations for a reason: many artists share that opinion, but it's opinion. The proper way depends on you.
The reason for knife sharpening of pencils is so that you're able to ...
- 3,443
13
votes
What can I do to ensure I only erase the smaller details without affecting the area around it?
Other options:
Eraser pencils:
Imagine a pencil that is filled with eraser instead of graphite - that's an eraser pencil. Some models have a small brush on the back end for getting rid of eraser ...
- 406
12
votes
How can I avoid smudging my pencil drawings?
In addition to the suggestions by @user24, you can get workable fixative that allows you to continue to work on drawings after spraying it. This is handy if you can't finish the piece in the whole ...
- 3,443
11
votes
Accepted
How to erase visible pencil marks on wood that has been painted over with acrylic paint?
You cannot erase it anymore. The graphite is underneath the paint, slightly mixed up in it.
The only way to get rid of the graphite is by painting over it, I'm afraid. But instead of painting layer ...
- 10.6k
10
votes
Accepted
How can I protect my pencil & charcoal drawings once complete?
If the pieces are likely to be handled and/or displayed then using fixative sprays is probably the best option. There are two purposely manufactured types:
Workable
Final
Workable Fixative
As the ...
- 1,338
8
votes
Accepted
Do I need a non-photo blue pencil for scanning drawings?
Modern scanners, cameras, and digital editors pick up the non-photo blue pencil marks that earlier scanners did not. However, this color is still easily removed from the scanned image by switching to ...
- 376
8
votes
Accepted
Which kind of pencils should be used by a beginner for drawing?
I am not an expert but here is what I gathered from my experience.
Pencil have different hardness rated as follow:
Harder (very light strokes) 7H -> ... -> 2H -> HB -> 2B -> ... -> 7B Softer (dark ...
- 1,333
8
votes
How can I make a sketch under a watercolour painting and have it not be seen?
It would be helpful to know the thickness/density of your paper. The specifics, grades, etc. are beyond your question. However, you can look at the cover of your pad or pack, refer to your supplier if ...
- 89
8
votes
How can I draw right angles with just a ruler?
Draw top and bottom of the ruler to create parallel lines.
Rotate the ruler and repeat using the original lines to create a parallelogram.
Draw the diagonals of the the parallelogram, thus creating a ...
- 89
7
votes
What can I do to ensure I only erase the smaller details without affecting the area around it?
If you want to erase a smaller area without buying additional stuff, it's easy!
Use a blade or scissors (I prefer blades) and cut out a pointed shape to erase with. If you are scared of wasting ...
- 121
7
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to combine charcoal and graphite in one image?
Yes, you can mix media. But you need to preserve some of the tooth of your paper's surface to successfully transition from working with graphite to charcoal.
The tooth of your paper determines how ...
- 2,956
7
votes
Why aren't there mechanical pastel pencils?
I don't know much about pastel pencils--so there could be something like a mechanical pastel pencil out there, and if so, hopefully someone will answer this question with information about such a ...
- 1,576
7
votes
How to stop or reduce graphite from reflecting light?
Spray fixative should make the drawing more matte as well as protecting it.
You could also try a layer of acrylic matte medium, sprayed or brushed, but that would be a little more involved and ...
- 3,159
7
votes
Which pencil is easier to erase: 2B or HB?
Generally, softer pencils are easier to erase.
Even though this may seem counterintuitive, as softer pencils produce darker lines, they contain proportionally more graphite and less binder (clay). ...
- 10.6k
6
votes
Accepted
How do hard, soft, and medium charcoal pencils compare against their counterparts in graphite?
I have used both charcoal and graphite for art projects. I have personally never combined the two in a single project.
Charcoal
Charcoal is generally much darker, bolder and messier. It's easy to ...
- 1,082
6
votes
Accepted
How to draw a heat blur from an aircraft engine
The heat blur effect is caused by the hot exhaust chaotically refracting the background. That is, the noisy turbulent hot air of the jet blast bends the light coming through it randomly, leading to ...
- 3,159
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