Overview
Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Metadaten

Studio: international art — 22.1901

DOI issue:
No. 97 (April, 1901)
DOI article:
Johnson, E. Borough: How to use a lead pencil
DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19787#0218

DWork-Logo
Overview
Facsimile
0.5
1 cm
facsimile
Scroll
OCR fulltext
How to use a Lead Pencil

will enable him to mark his impressions of tone
and form without limitation.

The pencil used in the method here advocated
should be a valuable adjunct to the handling of
the brush, for this technique is very much akin to
brush-work, as I hope to show clearly in this article.
It seems to me that for delicacy of tone and for
beauty of texture the lead pencil has no equal
amongst black-and-white mediums.

Many technical points have now to be men-
tioned. In the first instance the sharpening of
the pencil in a right manner is most essential for
the methods of work here described ; it should be
cut in the way shown by the sketch on page 185, the
wood and lead cut away more on one side than the
other, exposing a flat edge of lead. The pencil, again,
should be held, as indicated in the drawing on
page 186, between the first finger and thumb, with
the end of the pencil lying between the third and
little finger. In this manner the pencil is held
both firmly and flat, thus giving a broad, brush-
like stroke, or a sharp, decisive touch, equally
applicable for broad treatment and high finish.
This method of pencil drawing should perhaps
more properly be called " pencil painting," for it
is really a combination of point and tone painting,
the manner of treatment somewhat resembling the
brush-work of a Frans Hals portrait. The aim is
to make every touch intelligent and vital, spon-
taneous and loose. By studying good photographs
from the paintings of Frans Hals—and excellent
photographic reproductions of this painter's works
can be seen in the Art Library at the South Kensing-
ton Museum—the student will fully understand
my meaning, and obtain an excellent object-lesson
in the methods advised. Now this is no doubt a
very difficult method of using the pencil, requiring
simultaneously keenness of vision, spontaneity of
touch, with truth of tone and form. To obtain
these effects one must have the right kind of
pencil and paper. The best pencil known to me
—and I make use only of one—is Winsor &
Newton's twopenny BB; and the paper I gene-
rally draw on is that used by chemists for wrapping
up bottles, etc. It is a machine-made demy paper,
and I believe it has no special name. This
paper I find absolutely perfect for pencil tone
drawing, but owing to its thinness the draughts-
man should endeavour to be spontaneous and
certain, or else with much rubbing out the
paper will lose its surface and its quality. The
smoothest side, the one without a grain, is the
right side to work upon. I have used Blackburn's
studio paper, and found that also good, perhaps

better for a beginner to practise upon, for it is
stouter, and consequently will bear more rubbing.
A first-rate indiarubber is Webster's, which is of a
putty consistency ; it easily lifts the lead, and by
moulding with the fingers to a point, it will be found
most useful both for picking out the lights and
for making them sharp. As the chemists' paper
is very thin, it should have several sheets placed
under the drawing. I generally work over about
half a quire ; this gives an elasticity to the touch
equivalent to the pressure of a brush upon a
canvas, and it aids one materially in one's striving
after delicacy and subtlety of modelling. Ad-
ditional qualities and textures can also be rendered
by placing a sheet of rougher paper beneath the
drawing. For delicate modellings and tones I use
a small tortillon, and for larger passages the little
finger or hog-hair brush.

Softness and roundness can be obtained by laying
all the separate tones side by side. This, if one
may use the phrase, is a mosaic treatment of
putting on the touches, each touch having its true
form and value; and if this is done correctly, good
construction with solidity will be the result.
Practice only will give the amount of pressure
needful to mark the true tones. As to charm of
accident, which is of such value and interest in
an artistic drawing, it comes from rapidity of
workmanship. The blacks and the darker tones,
in order to be brilliant and of a good quality,
should be put on with a firm and decisive touch,
and not gone over two or three times, else the
surface will become shiny and the quality will be
spoilt.

The tone drawing of the old man's head, on
page 188, is drawn with a thick loose lead
pencil. After the head was sketched lightly in
outline, the shadows were put in first, then the
half tones, and finally the lightest tones. By this
means it is easier to get a looser and more open
effect of work. A flat hog-hair brush was used for
the lighter tones, and the blacks were put on directly,
so as to obtain depth and brilliance. The lead
being cut to a flat edge, enabled me to get the
flat, sharp touches such as are seen on the nose
and other places. The lights were left, but where
necessary were sharpened with Webster's rubber.

In the drawing on page 186, all the delicate
tones were got by using a tortillon, while the back-
ground was produced by shading over a spotty,
grained texture placed under the drawing.

When making pencil studies in outline from the
nude the drawing must be done in a free spirited
manner, but before a single line is put in the

187
 
Annotationen