Pencil sketching: tips and techniques for drawing with a pencil.

How to find the right pencil:

1. Look at the hardness of your pencil. Use a B grade to create lines for shading or blending. Use a harder H grade for solid lines that you won’t smear as easily.
2. Sharpen your pencil to a point to create fine lines or let it blunt if you want a thicker line.
3. Use a mechanical pencil for technical drawings, the fine nib will help you to create a consistent line that’s perfect for intricate details.
4. Experiment with coloured pencils to add another layer to your work. Sharpen them the same way as your sketching pencils to vary the thickness of your lines.
5. Charcoal pencils are your best option to create deep black or grey lines for a different tone and texture to graphite pencils.
6. To create a true black that you can’t get from graphite, try using a carbon pencil.
7. To sketch a design outline on ceramic or plastic before filling it in with paint and other mediums, the waxy crayon-like texture of a grease pencil is ideal.

Hatching and cross-hatching are great ways to create light and shade in your sketches. This simple technique involves using parallel lines or converging lines to add texture:

1. Draw a series of parallel vertical lines down your page – this is called hatching.
2. Add a series of horizontal lines over the top of your vertical lines to create a grid-style pattern.
3. Your horizontal lines should cross over your original lines in any direction. This cross-over effect is called cross-hatching.
4. Draw fine lines with larger spaces between them to create lighter shading effects.
5. Thicker hatches with smaller spaces between the lines will create a much darker tone, perfect for creating shadows.

You might associate scribbling with mistakes or a small child’s early artwork. But, used properly, scribbling is another fantastic way to add texture to your work. It’s particularly useful when creating textures such as hair, rope or fur. How to use scribbling:

1. Create a light outline so you know what space you want your scribbling to fill.
2. Use curved, erratic lines to fill the space and create the appropriate desired texture.
3. Tighter scribbles will create darker shades to give the illusion of a thicker texture, while adding more space between scribbles will give the impression of more light.

To avoid your initial pencil lines showing through:

• Try scribbling on a spare piece of paper.
• Dab your fingers or blending stick in the dust that forms from your scribbles and smooth it over your image, building the layers to create darker shades where needed.
• Repeat the process, creating more scribbles when you need more graphite.

• Use 30% of your drawing to add intricate details using your preferred technique.
• Use less detail to create ‘filler’ for the other 70% of your picture.
• The eye will be naturally drawn to the more detailed 30%, so make this the focus of your image.
• By directing the attention towards your focus, you highlight the purpose and intent of your illustration, while also creating an appealing and complimentary surrounding area.

Pencil sketching ideas and inspiration.

Getting started can be the hardest part of creating a piece of art. A little inspiration can go a long way, so we’ve pulled together some fantastic examples to help spark your imagination when creating your next pencil illustration.

Use these images to inspire your own piece or try copying them to practice different drawing techniques and styles.

Fruit is a great starting point when you’re learning to draw. Super accessible, it’s easy to study and practise with fruit, whether that’s an apple or a bunch of grapes.

Cross-hatching helps give rounded fruits such as cherries and raspberries a 3D look, while scribbling and stippling help to create shadows and indicate where the light is within your image.

Portraits are a popular style for many pencil artists. Not only do they offer the chance to practice different drawing techniques, they also make a great, personalized gift.

In this example, the simple sketch has been enhanced with various degrees of hatching to create shadows and folds in the subject’s hair and clothing.

Visit our blog for more information on tracing and editing with Adobe Illustrator.

You can find even more inspiration with our list of easy things to draw to get you going.

Create a custom brush for digital drawing.

To add a completely customized look to your artwork, try creating your own custom brush with the Art Brush Illustrator tool.

After you’ve scanned in your pencil drawing, you can transform it into a digital image using a custom brush, or combination of different brushes.

You can edit the shades, scale, proportion, direction and width of your brush too. Experiment with the different options in the properties tab and see what masterpieces you can create.

Watch the full Adobe Art Brush tutorial.

So what are you waiting for? Pick up a pencil and start creating your next sketch today. Remember, practice makes perfect, so try simple illustrations to start with, then build up to your pencil sketching skills until you’re comfortable with a big project.