Okay, okay, I know that everyone knows about the pencil but this is the first material you use when creating art most of the time. I'll just skip the intro on what a pencil is and go on to the other stuff.
There are different types of pencils, the most commonly used are; a mechanical pencil and a no. 2 pencil. Depending on what pencil you are using, you will get different feels and effects. I preferably enjoy use a mechanical pencil due to the light weight feeling of it and how precise the lines are. On the other hand, many artists use the no. 2 pencil because of it's sturdy structure and easy shading manipulation.
Comparison:
Good points for a mechanical pencil:
Light weight, easy to control, not as long (usually) as a no. 2 pencil, has refills on lead most of the time, and you do not need to sharpen them all the time.
Downs:
More expensive than a no. 2 pencil, refills on lead usually come separate, and and the erasers will wear out faster than a no. 2 pencil.
Good points for a no. 2 pencil:
It is longer and does not where down fast, smudges easily which is good for shading, comes in a variety of shades, has an eraser that does not wear of easily.
Downs:
the no. 2 pencil is longer and is harder to control, the eraser is usually harder and can be a challenge to erase with, and because of the hard wood it is made with, it is easy to get calluses on your fingers.
The pencil is the ideal material for the beginnings of most line art. Most artists trace over their lines with multi liner pens or scan them into the computer to make digital art. But for those that find their pencil art the best and have a clean trace of it to work with will often find these problems:
. "I want to use my pencil outlines but the material I want to use will smudge them and make them messy!"
. " I want to color my piece but I want to keep one that is still black and white."
Some answers to these problems are:
1. use a fixitive to seal your pencil lines but watch out! The fixitive is very harmful and should be sprayed outside wearing a mask and some sort of eye protection.
2. If you have a copier or some one you know has one, you can make multiple copies of your work and keep a black and white version. It also helps with materials that will smudge your work so that if you have a copy, it will not smudge.
The last thing on this post and almost every other post is the: Paper Corner!
almost every art material you use will have different effects on different paper. For the pencil, I would say that the best papers to use are copy paper and any other smooth papers. You might ask: "what about sketch book paper?" and it is true that is commonly used when drawing with a pencil but I find that hard grainy paper such as sketch book will have less precision in lines due to the grain.
Okay, hope you guys like this!
- Gero Chan
