Monday, September 13, 2010

The Drawing Board – Hat

I’m working with the hat next because I don’t want the hands to smear.

An 8B pencil was used for the shadows of the hat.  Take note – I am not pressing hard, but rather using several light layers.  I don’t want to smash the tooth of the paper by pressing too hard.  If you smash the tooth of the paper, you can’t achieve the depth you need by putting multiple layers of graphite.  Smashing will gloss over and leave a shine.

Hat I worked all over the hat.  I have to admit that I am not a fan of Spiderman.  He isn’t fun to draw either.  Ha!  After I put the darks of the hat in, I went to work on “Spidey”.  I applied the dark lines and and moved to the lighter areas.  Once I had “Spidey” blocked in, I worked on the hat some more.  I’m sorry.  I didn’t get pictures of this process for you.  I did several layers of 8B pencil and blended between each layer.

Spidey 

The threads – I made a lighter space where the threads would be.  These areas have already been blended.

Hat ThreadsI had lost my placing of the threads to part of  the hat.  Remember the clear acetate?  Here it is again.  I needed it to find my placing for the threads.

Hat w AcetateNow, those eraser remnants – here is where they come in handy.  I erased a thin line where the threads need to be.  Then, with the acetate over the drawing, I took a stylus and put indentions in the paper where the threads would be.  Then I blended the area so the threads would pop out.  A stylus should have been used upon the initial outline drawing, but I failed to do that.  Thus, hard work now.  The lines weren’t popping out as they should, so I took a utility knife to scratch out the threads.  I don’t recommend this because it damages the paper.  But, when mistakes happen, (as they will), then you make do with what needs to be done.

Hat Threads 2 Hat Threads

Hat Complete Hat Complete

Next time on The Drawing Board, hands.

2 comments:

Jo Castillo said...

This is so wonderful. Thanks for the tips. One of these days I will try colored pencils and graphite again.

Valerie Jones said...

Thank you, Jo! It's fun to work with graphite once you've been away from it for awhile. I hope you try it soon!