Blackwink and Art Graph. Graphite Sketch on 9 x 12 inch Bristol Paper. Summer is on vacation. We are back in school kitty. We have this set of sketch tools to explore. Pencils. That's right. And complementary tools that will help us achieve certain drawing effects. Ready? Let's name them. Complementary tools. Ruler, sandpaper block, compass, ledge sharpener, eraser putty, eraser stick, synthetic paintbrush, plastic eraser, clutch pencil. Main tools. Palomino blackwink pencils, Palomino blackwink pearl pencils, Palomino blackwink 602 pencil, and Art Graph Water solubil graphite block. They are all familiar tools. I'm sure you have some of them at home. Perhaps you have all of them. I'm here to show you how you can use them in ways you may not have tried before. I picked a set of Art tools to use on a set of mythological book illustrations. Each illustration was conceptualized on an A4 sketchbook using my clutch pencil and erasers. I waited until I had finished scanning and printing them on a letter size paper before I began using the main tools for this lesson. Blackwink and Art Graph on sheets of Bristol paper. This is a light table. I use it to trace my drawings onto my intended final artwork sheet. You don't need one if you're not in hurry. It's especially valuable to illustrators trying to meet deadlines. Okay, let's get sketching. We're going to break this lesson down into eight drawing techniques. One, near far, large small. Art tools, Palomino blackwink pencils, Palomino black and pearl pencils, Palomino blackwink 602 pencil. These pencils differ in the softness of their graphite core. Blackwink 602 is the least soft. Blackwink, the softest. And in between the two, blackwink pearl. When sketching a background, use the least soft graphite so you can get the lightest strokes to visually suggest something that's a long way away. You can use any HB pencil as an alternative. What's extraordinary about blackwink pencils is the smooth feel of the graphite on paper, whether or not you're using a soft graphite core. You feel a smooth slide on every line. Four-grant elements or larger subjects need to be bold in order to appear closer and stand out over the rest of the composition. Blackwink has the perfect softness for getting bold strokes with minimal pressure. But its point can get dull quickly. This feels like drawing with four B pencils. Get two sticks. It cuts down the trips to the sharpener by 50%. A regular prison sharpener will do fine. But a planetary sharpener is great when you need to sharpen a pencil quickly with a precise finish. And it has a sound of a manual wood saw. You can achieve mid-tone shading with any soft graphite by controlling the amount of pressure you exert on the paper. If you have a middle grade soft graphite like blackwink pearl, you don't need to adjust the weight you exert on your hands. No need to press breaks. Just keep going. Blackwink pearl also retains its fine point longer than blackwink. Just what we need for hatches and details. Two, invisible light, or tools. Eraser stick, Palomino blackwink pencils. This eraser stick is by Cohen Neur. And the eraser encased in wood, just like a regular pencil. It's convenient for erasing stray lines or tiny areas. You can also use it to draw over shaded areas to suggest light reflecting or piercing through a dark background. Three, near perfect circle. Our tools. Compass, sandpaper block, eraser putty, Palomino blackwink pencils. Drawing big curves and circles can be tricky, especially when you need to do it slowly and surely. This is when a compass comes in handy. But don't stop there. You will look too crisp, too perfect compared to surrounding elements that was drawn in freehand. Here's what to do instead. After drawing a circle with a compass, lightly dab the line with a putty eraser, then trace over it with your pencil. We want this to look just short of perfect. The sandpaper block is used as a sharpener for the compass lid. Four, distressed vignette. Our tools. Palomino blackwink pencils. Art graph water soluble graphite block. Synthetic paintbrush. To produce a jagged edge, fading away effect, transition from blackwink pencil shading to art graph water soluble graphite. Run a wet paintbrush over art graph strokes to dissolve the graphite. And this will quickly produce a dark wash over a large area. Then wait a few seconds just before it completely dries. And while the paper is still damp, redraw a few strokes using art graph to produce a scratching muddy look around the edges. Five, light rays. Art tools. Ruler. Palomino blackwink pearl pencils. Palomino blackwink 602 pencil. When drawing light rays on a daytime scene, draw the unlit areas. This is opposite of the invisible light technique where you draw with an eraser stick. Here, we draw tapering lines across our illustration using ruler and the lightest pencil in our kit. Then we lightly shade the alternating sections of the diagonal partitions. We're shaded areas overlap with a section of another object. Make that overlapping section one shade darker than non-overlapping sections. Six, painted pencil. Art tools. Palomino blackwink pencils. Eraser putty. Some elements are best drawn in a painterly manner. You can do this with a pencil by gripping close to the ferrule or blunt end. And then drawing with the side of the graphite. This creates thick lines with varying shades. The edges will look squared off, which can look good as is. But you can use a putty eraser to soften the edges if that suits a better style. There were too many fine lines in this particular illustration, with nine ladies and their pattern clothing. If I had drawn the tree leaves with a fine point, it would appear to have equal visual importance as a detailed drawing of the ladies. Too busy on the eyes. By painting with a pencil, we are only suggesting the appearance of tree leaves. The viewer gets it. There's no need to spoon feed. There we have a blurred effect. Now the viewer's potential will be on elements drawn more clearly. Seven, smoke and apparition. Our tools. Eraser putty, palomino blackwing pencils. This is similar to the painted pencil technique. But here, the eraser is as much a drawing tool as the pencil by shaping and smearing. Need the putty to your desired pointy shape and use it to cut through dark areas or to suggest a wide overlay. Eight, motion and energy. Our tools. Side pad of your hand. Eraser putty. Let's apply the same principle behind the painted pencil technique. Just because you can draw it, doesn't mean you have to. Use the side of your hand to pick up graphite from darker areas of the illustration. And then transfer the dirt on your hand to an area where you want motion and energy visualized. Use the putty eraser to produce faded jagged edges above and below the smeared graphite. This may take a few tries until you find the right look and feel. It's not a precise way to draw, but given that in this illustration, we have lightning bolts drawn with crisp lines. We avoid disturbing that outline of this method. Wasn't that fun? I thought I knew how to draw with pencils until I did this. I hope you enjoyed learning with me. See that? It looks bright out the window. Let's get some sun and bacon, kitty. See you next lesson.