For this class you'll need the following things right away.
- A set of pencils. Sets vary (read below) but you need to get as close as you can to a complete set ranging from 9B to 9H.
- An assortment of erasers including but not limited to kneaded, gum, white and pink erasers
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| http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/general-pencil-artist-eraser-set-758185/ |
- A Strathmore 400 series 18" x 24" drawing pad. Not a sketch pad. Make sure it says DRAWING. Get the one with the most pages.
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| http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/strathmore-400-series-18-x-24-spiral-drawing-pad-134270/ |
In the area you can go to Hobby Lobby for them. Sometimes Wal-Mart has decent supplies, most of the time they don't. If you're going to be in a city that has an art supply store you'll be able to find the best quality supplies there and the staff will be able to help you make the best choice.
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Pencils are the most common drawing tool and you'll be needing a set for this class.
Pencil leads are not lead at all but are made of a mixture of clay and a mineral called graphite. Graphite is a type of coal whose name derives from the greek word, grapho, for writing and drawing.
Drawing pencils come in grades that relate to their hardness or softness. Artists' pencils are just about always graded on a H/B scale. On this scale H stands for hard and B stands for black.
The hardest pencil is a 9H, with the H standing, again, for "hard." Then comes the 8H which is slightly darker and slightly softer, the 7H and so on. The H pencils have the highest clay content and the lowest graphite content. The harder they are the lighter the marks they make because the high clay content holds them together and keeps them from crumbling or rubbing off easily. They also stay sharp longer although they can tend to be brittle and are likely to break if you apply too much pressure. They will also emboss or even cut into your paper so you've got to be doubly careful about using too much pressure with them.
In the middle of the range are the H, the F, the HB and the B. F stands for "fine" and indicates that the pencil can be sharpened to a fine point and can hold that point. HB means "hard black"and B simply means "black." The standard No. 2 pencil falls somewhere in this middle range, usually HB.
The B side of the scale goes from B to 9B. The 9B is the blackest pencil. It has the lowest clay content and the highest graphite content. This means that there is less clay to hold it together. When you drag the pencil across the paper the graphite crumbles and rubs off easily. Imagine drawing with a lump of coal. These pencils give a dense, dark stroke but they dull quickly and are likely to crumble if you apply too much pressure. You can completely dull the tip of a dark B pencil making just one line. Be aware that they can get used up pretty fast.
The full range of pencils.
9H
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8H
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7H
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6H
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5H
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4H
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3H
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2H
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H
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F
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HB
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B
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2B
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3B
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4B
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5B
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6B
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7B
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8B
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9B
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Hardest
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→
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Medium
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→
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Softest
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Pencils come in various forms. There is the familiar wooden casing which is recommended because the wood supports and protects the fragile graphite. You can get woodless pencils which I love. These are essentially solid graphite sticks the size of a regular pencil. They are great for drawing with but they are fragile and tend to be broken into little bits before you get your money's worth out of them. If you're not a careful person go with the wooden ones.
There is also lead and lead holders which, as the names imply, are loose pencil leads and a holder to put them in when you want to use them. They're like a mechanical pencil but the lead is fat, about the size of the lead inside a wooden pencil. The drawbacks with these are that you'll have one holder and a bunch of unmarked leads that you have to keep swapping out and keep organized. And I've only ever been able to find a few lead grades for them.
Finally, there are regular mechanical pencils which come in various relatively tiny thicknesses. These are great for technical drawings and spelling tests because they give a nice consistent line but they aren't really suited to this class. Anyway, you'll never find all the grades of lead for them and even if you did, you'd still have the problem of swapping them all the time and needing to keep track of which tiny unmarked lead is what grade.
Armed with this information, get yourself set of drawing pencils. The entire range can be hard to find. You may have to to make due with 6H to 6B. Don't get cheap ones. You're going to be spending a lot of time with them and cheap ones will only frustrate you.
Also get yourself something to sharpen them with. You'll need two sharpeners, a regular old fashioned pencil sharpener and some sort of blade. A pocket knife will work well.
Get an 18" ruler. Your ruler should have a smooth texture on all sides, no cork backed rulers, etc. The best rulers are quilting rulers.
Paper is the next thing you'll need for making a drawing. You will need a variety of sizes and weights.
Paper is made by pressing together moist fibers usually cellulose pulp derived from wood, bark, rags or grasses, and drying them into sheets.
Paper comes in different weights and there are different weight systems in different countries. In the U.S. manufacturers weigh a ream, 500 sheets, of one basic size of paper. Whatever 500 sheets weighs is the paper weight. However, this is the weight before a "basic sheet" has been cut into the sizes we're familiar with, so 500 sheets of 20 lb typing paper doesn't weigh 20 pounds. Nicer art papers are not cut from larger sheets. They're made whole at the desired size. This means that this is actually two measurement systems in one, one for cut paper and one for whole paper. That difference is where the confusion starts for beginning students.
If you're looking at a sheet of paper that's been cut from a larger sheet but don't know what size that larger sheet was, how do you compare its weight to the weight of another piece of paper? It turns out that it doesn't matter so much. Paper that has been cut down from larger sheets always has a crisp, straight edge, like notebook paper or typing paper. These are generally pretty thin papers. Paper that has been made whole has a deckled edge like the example below. These are generally much thicker papers. In either case, knowing how much 500 sheets weighs simply lets you know how thick the paper is. If 500 sheets weighs 20 pounds that's pretty thin paper. If 500 sheets weighs 150 pounds that's thicker.
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| http://0.tqn.com/d/painting/1/0/B/_/1/WPaper-DeckleEdge.jpg |
There is further confusion because there are many European papers available in the U.S. European made paper comes in weights determined by grammes per square meter per ream of paper. You'll see this written as g, g/m2, or gsm. If you had 500 sheets of paper that were each one square meter in size it would be easy to weigh them and get their gsm. However, you don't really need to know what a square meter of 500 sheets weighs. You just need to know that a lower number means thinner paper and a higher number means thicker paper.
The density of paper ranges from 250 kg/m3 (16 lb/cu ft) for tissue paper to 1,500 kg/m3 (94 lb/cu ft) for some speciality paper. Printing paper is about 800 kg/m3 (50 lb/cu ft).[13]
Paper may be classified into seven categories:[14]
Printing papers of wide variety.
Wrapping papers for the protection of goods and merchandise. This includes wax and kraft papers.
Writing paper suitable for stationary requirements. This includes ledger, bank, and bond paper.
Blotting papers containing little or no size.
Drawing papers usually with rough surfaces used by artists and designers, including cartridge paper.
Handmade papers including most decorative papers, Ingres papers, Japanese paper and tissues, all characterized by lack of grain direction.
Specialty papers including cigarette paper, toilet tissue, and other industrial papers.
Most of the time we'll be using Strathmore brand 400 weight drawing paper 18"x24".
You'll also need a sketchbook. 8.5"x11" or larger, not smaller.
And you will need a few sheets of higher quality paper in a few sizes and weights.
- Stonehenge White 120LB 30"x44"
- Stonehenge White 90 LB 22"x30"
- Rives BFK 250 GSM 22"x30
Preliminary Assignment: we will spend time simply making marks and getting to know the pencils. This process of making marks and figuring out the materials is about developing a visual vocabulary and developing the patience and skill to use that vocabulary.
- With your lightest pencil draw a grid of one inch squares, one square for each pencil from 9H to 9B. Just like the grid above. Using consistent pressure, fill in each square with a different pencil. Go lightest to darkest from left to right. Make sure you label which pencil filled in which square.
- Draw three narrow columns across your paper. Choose your lightest pencil, your darkest pencil, and a pencil that you would tend to use. Starting on one end make an even gradation from the darkest you can get it to white with each of those pencils. Remember to label your columns.
- Using that pencil that you would tend to like to use, on a clean page, make long lines across the page. Try to make each line as even and consistent as possible all the way across. Make each line different from the others; fat, narrow, straight, squiggly, light, dark, etc. Pay attention to what you are doing. This isn't just about filling up the page.
Primary Assignment:
You will be making a drawing from observation. This is about looking as much as it is about drawing. Before you begin spend some time looking at the still life. Focus on it and shut everything else out of your mind. Try to forget what you know about these objects. Try to forget every other thing like it you've ever seen. Try to think of it in an unbiased way. Identify its:
Edges:
- Where does the still life end and the space behind it begin?
- Focus on that edge. It is harsh or subtle? Is it light or dark? Is there a line there? What kind of line?
- Are there edges defined by shading?
Spaces and volumes:
- What are the negative spaces? The full spaces?
- What kinds of geometric shapes can you pick out? Triangles? Squares? Ovals? Etc.
- Think for a while about the negative spaces more than the still life itself.
- How do they contribute to defining forms?
Proportions:
- Stick your arm out in front of you and hold up your thumb. "Aim" down your arm at the still life.
- How big is the still life by comparison?
- How do the spaces and volumes compare?
- Now hold your thumb up to your paper. How big does your still life need to be on your paper?
- How many thumbs tall or wide is it? Or the different spaces or volumes?
Angles:
- When you hold up your pencil, what do the angles look like? 90 degrees? More open? Less?
Light and shadow:
- What is the lightest part of the still life? Is it white? If not, which pencil would make that value?
- What is the darkest part? Which pencil for that value?
- And the in-between tones? Which pencils for those?
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