My teachers have always told me that I need to know how to draw in order to paint and that I need to practice to get better at it. I suppose that’s true! Drawing skills show up underneath everything else we create on paper. I honestly love creating abstract art the most, but there’s nothing that makes me feel more well-rounded and accomplished as an artist as seeing some tiny improvement with a pencil. I also have a small fetish for chiaroscuro [from the Italian chiaro (light) and oscuro (dark)], a technique that creates high contrast and dark shadows.
I completed this drawing over three days in six or seven hours, using a Prismacolor Ebony graphite pencil in Jet Black, a 9B Derwent Graphic Pencil, a Staedtler Mars Plastic eraser, a manual pencil sharpener, and a small piece of sheepskin chamois. If I were better equipped, I would have used a retractable eraser, which you can use more like a pencil. The Staedtler was a little clumsy since it’s a block, and I had to use the edge to try to make clean lines. I also would have used a pure graphite pencil (such as Faber-Castell’s Pitt Graphite Pure Pencil) so I didn’t have to deal with the wood pencil shavings that kept falling off the Prismacolor pencil.
To obtain the shadows, I always start with the highlights. I sketch the basic shapes, and then dust graphite all over the entire drawing using a pencil sharpener. This is where the pure graphite pencil would have helped. With a pencil made of solid graphite, you’re dusting pure graphite. In this case, I was covering the paper with graphite and wood shavings, which I had to try to carefully pick up with a pair of tweezers and remove. Then I use the chamois to lightly smear the graphite all over the whole page, taking care not to make it too dark that I obscure the drawing underneath. This is when I mark the highlights. Once the page is a very, very light grey, I go back with the eraser to erase all the areas that I want to be as light as possible. The whitest white of the drawing. After that, I start in on the shadows and textures and details. To get the darkest shadows, I use the sharpener again to dust little piles of graphite on to the paper, being more careful now about making sure the graphite lands where I want it. Then I use my index finger to work the graphite fairly aggressively into the paper.
I recently created a portfolio which I’ve uploaded under the Art tab. Feel free to look at it. When I look back at my work using graphite, I can’t believe that I did most of that work when I was 16 years old. I thought to myself, Good Lord, girl, why aren’t you doing more of this?
Well, there’s law school.
Maybe I haven’t mentioned that. So I am in law school. That is as good an excuse as any. However, I refuse to give up my creative self, and I remain determined to persist in the pursuit to do it all.
You can also see select drawings with graphite here: https://www.leilacurrah.com/artgalleries/graphite/