A SORT OF PORTRAIT SKRIBBLE TUTORIAL THINGY
Wot you have all bin waitin for ;^)
Part 1 ~ Basics
I often get requests for help with drawing techniques and find I never have the time I would like to devote to one-to-one tuition. I've been toying with the idea of a "tutorial" for some time......... so here is how I do it.......... not necessarily the "right" way, but my way.
1. BASICS AND PREPARATION
First a few basics, I know this has probably been said time and again, but preparation is half the battle when producing good skribbles, so this is the boring bit......
1.1
Check your kit. My basic, minimum skribble kit shown below consists of 4 x HB pencils, 3 x 2B Pencils, 3 x H Pencils, erasers, blending stumps (home made and bought), a good quality metal pencil sharpener, nail board for filing, a soft clean make-up brush, rough/coarse fabric (not shown), tissue paper and few sheets of scrap paper.
1.2
Sharpen all your pencils using the sharpener, then file the points to needle sharpness on the nail board as shown below, finally polishing them on the tissue paper to remove all excess graphite dust. Clean the nail board of all loose graphite.
1.3
Clean the ends of your blending stumps by filing with the nail board then burnish on the rough fabric until you have removed all traces of graphite and loose bits of paper.
1.4
This might sound stupid, but write "hand rest" on one side of a piece of scrap paper. This is used to protect your masterpiece while you are working on it. The reason you write on it is so that the same side goes down on the drawing every time, rather than the side with chocolate biscuit crumbs/egg and mayo/chewing gum stuck to it. Another sheet of clean scrap should be used to place over your piccy when you take a break or close your drawing pad for any reason (I always leave the sheet I am drawing on in the pad until finished ~ even though I used a sheet of copy paper to skribble on for this tutorial LOL).
1.5
When you are ready to start, wash your hands using soap, not just water. The aim is not only to clean up but to de-fat the skin and remove as much skin oil as possible.
