I began to feel the need to work on my sketching after the last painting I did of a horse. I started my sketching journey by drawing a picture of ‘still life.’
I used one of the sketchbooks my daughter had for sketching. I generally do my pictures freehand, without measurement. it did not work with this picture which had a set of objects placed at different angles and elevations. That was my first lesson in sketching – to measure and draw.
I drew the outline using a 2B pencil and shaded it using 4B and 6B pencils. In case you’re not into sketching, then ‘B’ denotes the softness of the lead in the pencil. So a 6B pencil would be softer than a 4B pencil. This means that the lead has more graphite in it, which leaves a darker mark on the paper. ‘H’ refers to the hardness of the lead. An ‘H’ pencil may be used for the initial sketching. It is lighter and can be erased easily in case of errors. A 4H is harder than a 2H and hence lighter.
It’s best to use an eraser called a ‘putty’ eraser while sketching.
As I said before, I’ve just begun the journey and am no expert at it. However, I’ve decided to share my learnings and my journey with you. There are two reasons for it – a) it might motivate you to try something too (rather an altruistic goal, right?) and b) telling you pushes me to continue working at it as it makes me feel answerable.
While I quite like the final result, the sketching tested my patience, mercilessly. Unlike painting, where you use different colours to bring the picture to life, in sketching, here it’s simply layers of pencil work and pressure applied on the pencil that brings out different shades- fewer layers (lighter shade) and more layers (darker shade). Also, sketching took me a much longer time than painting takes me. I hope the time I take reduces as I improve. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it more if it does. This only means I need to work harder if I am to improve and begin enjoying it.
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