by
William Beachy | Go Media |
17 February
2007
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The very first step is the pencil drawing. I could write a
novel about how to draw, but this tutorial will focus on the
process – the steps it takes – to go from pencil drawing to
the finished, designed, commercial piece of artwork.
The following are the tools you will need:
Paper
I use a plate finish Bristol. This type of paper is heavy
enough to handle a lot of erasing. It is also thick enough
to not wrinkle when you are in the inking phase of this
process.
Pencil
I actually use a mechanical pencil like the KOH-I-NOOR
Technigraph 5611 Lead Holder. This type of mechanical pencil
holds a very thick piece of graphite that you sharpen and
use similar to a real pencil, except it’s better.
Eraser
I use the Staedtler Mars Plastic eraser. And a Sanford Tuff
Stuff eraser stick.

I think that it is important to stay fairly loose when
you are in the pencil drawing phase. Start with basic
shapes, keep your lines fairly light and when you start to
see the shape you’re going after you can focus in and
"tighten" up your drawing.
Here is a sample of a fairly loose pencil drawing:

Here is a close-up sample of a fairly tight pencil
drawing:

A Word of Encouragement about Drawing
I think most illustrators are far too hard on themselves.
They expect to sit down with one piece of paper and draw
exactly what they have in their mind the very first time
around. In my opinion this is nearly impossible. Drawing is
a process that takes a long time. I like to make an analogy
between a good batter in baseball and a good illustrator. A
great batting average for the major leagues is “.300.” This
batting average means that they get 3 hits out of ten, or
get a hit 30 percent of the time. I think that this is a
reasonable expectation for an artist to have as well. If I
can get 3 decent drawings out of ten attempts – I feel
fairly good about myself.
So, relax while you’re in your pencil drawing phase of this
process. Get yourself a big stack of paper and get loose,
draw lots and don’t be concerned about “bad” sketches – just
toss them aside and start over.
Here is our finished tight pencil drawing:

Onwards to the next
page!
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