Coiir jPainting An Introduction to Drawing gouache and Watercolour, tempefi and Pastel acrylic Oil painting Ronald Off Painting Course ^/ Course Painting INTRODUCTION TO Drawing Watercolour, gouache and tempera and Pastel acrylic Oil painting V \ -...«<!^-V\ V' .^-t -"% S- \ Ronald Pearsall -•:v\ ^^^ ^^%,. %::f\v -.,.. -...^ .^„.....i^:ls^^"^ va ^ CHANCELLOR ^ '^ PRESS CONTENTS Drawing 9 Gouache Watercolour, and Tempera 93 Pastel and Acrylic 175 Oil Painting 261 Publishedin1996 by ChancellorPress AnimprintofReedConsumerBooksLimited MichelinHouse 81FullhamRoad London SW36RB Copyright©1991,1993,1996 Regency HousePublishingLimited ISBN185152973X Allrightsreserved. Nopartofthispublicationmaybe reproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinany formorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopymg, recordingorotherwise,withoutthepriorpermissionofthe copyrightholder. PrintedinChina INTRODUCTION TO Drawing 1 CONTENTS Introduction 1 What is a drawing? 12 What materials are needed? 12 Is drawing difficult? 17 How do I start? 23 Having started the drawing, how do carry on? 36 I Figure drawing 38 Portrait drawing 47 Animal drawing 57 Landscape 63 Townscape 69 72 Still life Seascape 75 Picture making 79 Framing 92 Introduction Being able to draw something in front of you, whether it is a landscape, a figure, or a portrait, is one of the great pleasures of life. There is a challenge, that of representing three dimensions in two, but it is a challenge that should be taken up as it is a skill that can be easily acquired. Drawing is much easier than playing the piano; and, as with musicians, there are naturals. There are men and women - and children - who can look at an object and depict it as it is, not as they think it is, without thinking twice about it. And there are others who have to work at it. If you can call it work! For the accent of this book is on fun. All you need to start is some paper and a pencil, but one of the delights of drawing is that you can expand your repertoire. You may move from pencil into charcoal, or into pastels or paints; and, if you do, your knowledge of drawing will prove invaluable. It is all very well splashing about with a paint brush, but you have to know what you are doing, even if you are dealing with masses and shapes and not lines and shading. Drawing offers something for everybody. You may like to go into the countryside and sketch quietly by yourself, or you may prefer townscapes. If you are nervous, and don't want strangers looking over your shoulder, draw in the comfort of your car. Or you may like to join a sketching club. There are more of them than you may imagine. For there are a lot of you out there! 11 WHAT A DRAWING? Just as the steel nib replaced the quill, so today IS the steel-nibbed pen has been partly super- seded by the Rapidograph, which has a range of nibs from 0.1 (very fine) to 0.8 (broad). The The dictionary defines drawing as the art of virtue of a constant flow of ink and a consistent representing objects or forms by Hnes drawn, shading, and other means - that is a picture in nliinbe ictosemlpf.enAsatdersawfnorlainleacckaromfoftlebxiebivhatryiiend tbhye lines. There are actually at least four types of pressing down on the point, as with the old- drawing: trying to represent something in front fashioned steel nib. When using pen and ink of the artist; trying to depict something from always have a variety ofpens and nibs available memory; copying something in another medium; and creating something entirely from imagina- so that you can change from one to another if tion. Drawing is usually carried out with a uthseedneoetdheraritsheas.n Ainsaprte,nitniibsswaorrethnomwentsioolniittnlge pencil or a pen, charcoal or a crayon, but it can that they are vulnerable to ill-usage and have a also be done with a pointed instrument on limited life span. If the points 'cross over' reject metal (etching) or stone (lithography) or with them immediately; there is little profit in trying something soft and flexible such as a brush. to restore them. A Gillott 303 nib is flexible WHAT MATERIALS ARE aAnd useful for both narrow and broad strokes. 'J' nib is the smallest lettering pen, giving a NEEDED? hard line, and is very handy for flat patterns and hatching. It is a good idea to have a small round sable brush near at hand to use with the Pencils range from the very hard (designated pen and ink. Although the brush can be used by H) to the very soft and black (B). There are with full-strength ink, very pleasant effects can 10 grades between 6B and 4H, the average be created with diluted ink. An old toothbrush office pencil being HB. Pencil lead is a mixture is also a handy accessory for spattering ink, if of clay and graphite, and the greater the you rub a fingertip (or, if this is too messy, a proportion ofgraphite the softer and blacker the piece of wood or an old ruler) down the bristles. pencil mark. It is useful to have several grades Spattering ink onto watercolour can create of pencil for use in one drawing. Hard pencils amazing textures and effects. Rapidographs can be sharpened with a pencil-sharpener, but with a very fine nib do have a tendency to get 2B and upwards need to be sharpened with a clogged up, and the nibs need a good deal of knife. The point can be tapered or given a care. Modem Rapidograph pens are cartridge- chisel edge (very useful for shading). Pencils filled, a great improvement on manual filling should always be sharpened at the opposite from a small plastic bottle. end to that which shows the degree of hard- ness or softness; otherwise HB, 2B or 2H or Inks come in numerous colours, though black whatever will be lost Small pieces of sand- remains the most popular. Indian ink is prob- paper will keep the pencil point exactly as you ably the best kind of ink to use. Ink can be want it; art shops sell these in little blocks. waterproof and water-soluble, and coloured There is also an excellent range of coloured inks can be used to great effect in combination pencils in a multitude of shades, but there is with watercolour, especially on a moist surface little variety of hardness and softness, save where the colours can run into each other. between the products of the various manu- Nothing can be knocked over quite so easily as facturers. These should not be confused with an ink bottle, so keep it on a saucer. A small flat pastel pencils. cardboard box, of the kind used for cigarettes or chocolates, with a hole made in the lid is Pens also offer an immense range. Drawing- better still. The card at the edges of the hole pen nibs are usually sold in sets of a dozen or can be pushed up to hold the ink bottle so, and nibs themselves vary in size from tighter. mapping-pen nibs to those designed for doing posters. The larger nibs often come fitted with Papers Anything which wiU take a pen or a kind of a tray, called a reservoir, so that there pencil line can be used for drawing. Artists of is a ready flow of ink Lettering pens can be the past showed a particular fondness for the very useful, and so can the so-called calli- backs of old envelopes. The traditional art- graphic pens. Some people refer to pen-nibs as school paper is cartridge paper, sold in various pens, which can be very confusing. For those weights, and best bought in sheet form and cut who find it tiresome to dip the pen in the ink in two or four. Decent cartridge paper takes constantly there are of course fountain pens, watercolour well, and is a good substitute for especially those with interchangeable nib units. watercolour paper as well as being less ex- 12