Pencil

Are you hand sharpening your pencils with a knife? My freehand and life drawing and watercolor instructors wouldn't let us anywhere near a pencil sharpener, and they weren't even electric. They pulled them out of the studios.

Are you hand sharpening your pencils with a knife? My freehand and life drawing and watercolor instructors wouldn't let us anywhere near a pencil sharpener, and they weren't even electric. They pulled them out of the studios.

Since I'm a very disorganized person that loses my stuff all the time, I'll often resort to sharpening via this method. But I had no idea that it may actually be a more effective kind of sharpening for solid drawing though!
I'm a bit surprised. :eek:

We were taught to sharpen them to an angled wedge shape, not your normal point type thing.

The tip of the pencil is doing a lot better but I having a little trouble with shaping it.

I am now trying to increase my range on my strokes, they are very short. There is also the problem of groves in the paper and the unsteadyness of my strokes.

Moving the pencil with the elbow and shoulder with the wrist lock. My ribs are hurting now. :D

Sounds like its just a matter of finding the "sweet spot"--which is a purely individual preference.
That sweet spot depends on so many variables from the grade of pencil--which can vary between the same grades of the same brand--to weather changes, to paper rag content to......phases of the moon it seems.
Just be flexible--unlock the wrist and use the whole arm for example, or try different grades or brands of pencil.
When I clean up a drawing, I twirl the pencil constantly, seeking a new point all the time. When I'm just drawing, I twirl less. When I'm sketching, or feeling doing something looser, I hold the pencil differently.
The bottom line is calssic cartooning advice: whatever gives you the results you seek is the right method--no matter what that method might be.

The bottom line is classic cartooning advice: whatever gives you the results you seek is the right method--no matter what that method might be.

Best advice for many things.

I need a little advice on framing my drawings. I am still drilling with just lines but I am drawing the stuff around me also. If I have an object that is large and close should I drop it down in scale?

I am drawing the television and the unit is box shape but close. I have to shift my eyes to see the base clearly, so should that just be left out? The drawing is covering the whole sheet because I noticed that everything so far has been drawn really small.

It should depend on the composition you are after, not what's actually in your view. You are the one in control. If you need to you can always shift yourself a little further back so you can view everything. Or you can just be selective in what you render.

Larry's also not drawing representationally, but creating a character as he goes. Drawing from life has different requirements than drawing from imagination.

You should always rough in your proportions first, then add details, measuring as you go.

You don't have to draw a box around something to confine objects to a composition. Sorry having trouble understanding what your real problem is. It's in the mind. You picture a composition in your head and you fill it with the needed detail. It's actually easier than using a camera.

Even drawing from life, you decide on a composition and only render what fits.

True Phacker. My point is that the video Wontobe's talking about shows a character being created out of thin air, rather than say a life drawing of a model. In both cases composition is important, but when something's being created from imagination the rules are looser - it's easier to "fudge it", in other words.

There are probably also different experience levels at work. Presumably Larry can envision the final result and plan accordingly without roughing in elements. Wontobe's running out of paper before he gets to the bottom ;), so he needs to rough in dimensions before moving on to details. This is a common problem when "how to" videos don't take into account the experience level of those watching them - steps vital to a student's success get left out and the student is left with an incomplete picture of the process.

I had never even thought about this. I guess I sharpen my pencil with an electric sharpener all the time, then sharpen it still more on a piece of paper next to my animation disk when Im doing clean lines.

When Im doing rough drawings I go over the line a few times, a couple light passes to figure out where I want the line, then a couple darker strokes to get the thick and thin, and I keep sharpening it by rubbing it against a piece of paper to get the edge I need... not too sharp but not too dull.

But yeah, there is no right way, keep drawing all the time and eventually you'll figure out what works for you.

I'm curious though... what is more basic than drawing primitive shapes (you mean cubes, cones, spheres... stuff like that?)

You're right DSB. It's been soooo long since I started drawing, I had totally forgotten about the running out of paper problem. It's something that basically comes from time and practice. Learning to see both in the mind and learning what to focus on and rendering that scaled to the medium you are using.

Glad your last attempt was better Wontobe. Sorry for misunderstanding or lacking understanding. It does get easier with practice.

I guess this is something like what you were really asking about:

The Cartoon Figure
The normal human figure is about seven or eight heads tall. The cartoon figure, however, usually deviates from those normal proportions.
In fashion illustration or sports cartooning, the emphasis is on the body; the figure may be drawn ten heads tall. The traditionally sexy "pin-up" is likely to have abnormally long legs. In the humorous cartoon, the head is usually very large in many the proportion to the body. In cartoon characters (Snoopy, Ziggy), the head is as big as body. The larger-than-normal head produces at least two effects. One, it makes the cartoon figure seem cute and childlike. Two the exaggerated head size gives play to the facial features and expressions which best communicate personality and feelings.
http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article154.html

wait.. are you guys saying that you shouldn't sharpen your pencil with a sharpener!? or is that for cartooning only? I was under the impression to have a sharp pencil all the time until you needed thicker lines, then dull it on a piece of paper. I'm just wondering. cause I normally don't have a sharp pencil around, just when I'm at school, otherwise anything lying around works. sometimes I use a piece of broken lead from the pencil I broke. So is that bad?

Granted, I haven't the experience in drawing varied lines that would entitle me to any kind of opinion on this subject, but have none of you artsyfartsy smartypants thought of just using BOTH ends of the pencil -- one kept finely sharpened, and the other a bit dull?

:cool: god im brilliant*

* :(

wait.. are you guys saying that you shouldn't sharpen your pencil with a sharpener!? or is that for cartooning only? I was under the impression to have a sharp pencil all the time until you needed thicker lines, then dull it on a piece of paper. I'm just wondering. cause I normally don't have a sharp pencil around, just when I'm at school, otherwise anything lying around works. sometimes I use a piece of broken lead from the pencil I broke. So is that bad?

Actually I am the one that mentioned that my art instructors in college didn't allow pencil sharpeners. I've come into animation later in life so not sure what the pros do. But have always carried a pocket knife with me since my younger days. Not that I don't occassionaly resort to an electric sharpener if there's one around.

I think whats being left out of this pencil sharpening thread, sorry I'm lazy and haven't read all the posts, is how you hold the pencil.

Of course this is all personal preferance. Usually when I'm sketching and sharpening my pencils with a knife, making a longer exposed lead portion, I hold it with the tips of my fingers instead of like a regular pencil or pen when writing letters. What I mean is, put the pencil on the table. Then put the tip of your thumb on one side, and the tips of your index, middle and sometimes ring fingers on the other side of the pencil. Now bring them together and pinch the pencil between your fingers and thumb. Then draw like that using more of the side of the pencil then with the tip.

This is more for lose, fast sketching rather than tight drawings or clean-up work.

That's my take. But draw how you will.

Aloha,
the Ape

I used to get in trouble in the first and second grade for writing like that. I still write like that. I wonder how much that helped me in moving to drawing. They said something about subcutaneous muscle tissue wasn't highly developed in me so the conventional "pinch" method of writing letters and numbers wasn't my style.

Actually I am the one that mentioned that my art instructors in college didn't allow pencil sharpeners. I've come into animation later in life so not sure what the pros do. But have always carried a pocket knife with me since my younger days. Not that I don't occassionaly resort to an electric sharpener if there's one around.

I never understood the horseshit about having rules like "no sharpeners allowed".:confused:

Call it for what it is: a different technique, a different way to apporach things, but don't make it a blinkin' rule. That just ends up unnecessarily confusing the piss out of people.

For the record; I use a sharpener, and always have. I've also used a scratch pad, a hand-sharperner, sandpaper, a x-acto-knife, my teeth--it depends on wholly ephemeral things like whims and urges.
All those teachers tried to hand me rules too--but I was stronger.:rolleyes:

Granted, I haven't the experience in drawing varied lines that would entitle me to any kind of opinion on this subject, but have none of you artsyfartsy smartypants thought of just using BOTH ends of the pencil -- one kept finely sharpened, and the other a bit dull?

:cool: god im brilliant*

* :(

Yea, I've done that before.

Only problem with it is that I keep on sharpening the damn end that I wanted to keep dull. Plus it eats a pencil down to nothing in no time--and I HATE drawing with stubs.

I'd look at a book like "How to Draw the Looney Tunes" or a title to that effect.
I found that is shows the kind of line quality that's nice to see in animation/cartoon drawings.

If you are twirling you pencil as you draw,( I assume you mean its being ground to a point whilst chiselled on all sides?) that might account for the "punch" look. Twirl the pencil less, would be my answer.