In order to understand how to draw, paint or make art in general you have to understand how the materials and tools of the trade work. The following are the basic insruments you’ll start with for art:

• Pencil(s)
• Charcoal
• Pen
• Brush

In addition to these instruments you’ll also use medium(s) that will be used by the instruments for art, such as:

• Pastels
• Paint
• Ink

Each of these tools and mediums can be used with the following media:

• Paper
• Canvas
• Board
• Etc…

Let’s get into these in detail.

Instruments

Some of the instruments actually have the medium as part of the instrument such as pencils and charcoal. Their medium is broken off from themselves adding it to the media (such as paper). The use of instruments require fine motor skills to work with them correctly. Variation and tone of line depend on the pressure that is used on the various instruments and each respond in different ways.

Pencils

Pencils contain a graphite material within itself. Mechanical pencils have it added through a tube where as regular pencils are within a wood shaft. The “lead” as it is called is broken off slowly as you use the pencil against the media, for example paper. The texture of the media will affect the line quality produced by the pencil. If the media is rough the line won’t be solid and will have textured parts where the “lead” was able to be adhered. A smooth paper would be best such as a vellum. Even with smooth paper there is enough texture that the pencil is able to flake parts of the lead onto it. Lead can be erased from most media which lends itself to beginners when making mistakes.

Presure

A pencil reacts to the pressure you apply to it against the paper. If you have a light touch the line will be lighter which helps when you are roughing in a shape. Putting more pressure on the pencil against the media will create a darker and sometimes a thicker line. The more pressure the more material you will use from your pencil as well. Remember also the lighter the line the easier to erase. Keeping a line light at first will allow for changes and you can always go over with more pressure to darken the line.

Example pressure:

Mechanical vs Regular

A regular pencil is able to provide a side angle for shading and tone where as the mechanical pencil is purely just a point. The advantage of the mechanical pencil is sketching with it allows for a continual sharp and consistent point. The regular pencil dulls faster and is more advantageous for shading and thicker lines.

Charcoal

Like pencils, charcoal is an instrument and a medium together. It also works on similar principles as a pencil with regard to the material will break off onto the medium. Charcoal is typically a very dark medium to work with.

Presure

Pressure will affect both the line thickness as well as the darkness. Barely, touching the charcoal to the media will allow for a lighter line for gesture drawing and other sketching techniques.

In addition to pressure sensitivity, charcoal can be smudge very easily when it is on the media. This allows for lightening a dark area of the charcoal as well as blending it with the rest of the artwork. Typically the use of charcoal would be for tone and light and dark studies. It can be erased with a bit more effort than that of pencil.

Example charcoal techniques (light, dark, smudge):

Pens

Pens differ quite a bit from pencil and are a more permant medium that essentially dies the media. The ink within a pen is released from the pen at a regular interval. There is a variations of pens to choose from:

• Ballpoint - works on the notion of a small ball rolling the ink onto the media
• Felt tip - works by soaking a felt tip at the end with ink and the ink is released onto the media through pressure against the tip, similar to how water is rung from a towel
• Fountain - works similar to a brush as far as dipping into ink or having a cartriage of ink, a channel on the top allows ink to flow to the media based on spreading of 2 points on the bottom of the tip

Presure

All pen types are pressure sensitive and allow for thinner lines based on how much pressure to add to the media. The pressure of a fountain pen will have a larger thickness range then that of a ballpoint or a felt tip pen. Fountain pens are typically used for calligraphy for this reason as the pen can create thick and thin lines based on pressure and rotation of the pen.

Example of pen pressure:

Brush

Brushes are typically used in painting but can be used in illustration with the instrument being dipped in ink vs paint. Brushes are made up of bristels on the end connected to a shaft for holding. Brushes come in all different types and shapes with the most popular shape being the round. The different shape of brushes are:

• Round - having a round bristel body that comes to a point
• Flat - having a flat bristel ody as well as top
• Filbert - similar to a flat shape but is tapered slightly on the top sides
• Angle - has a flat bristel body and is cut at an angle at the top
• Fan - has a flat bristel body and is spread out from the connection point to the top with the top being the widest part

For illustration and drawing round work the best given the point and the line quality variations you can achieve from them. Brushes do not contain their own medium so they are used typically by dipping into the medium on a palette or an ink well. The amount of medium added to the brush will affect the use of the brush and the best approach is to not go past half the bristel length.

Presure

Like all instruments, pressure affects the application of the medium with a brush. The harder you press a brush the more the bristels spread out letting out more medium onto the media. This can be used to create varying line quality in starting with higher pressure and slowly bringing the brush up to thin the line out.

Example of pressure and approaches:

Published @ Apr 4, 2024