The Guide to Graphite: Texture Study 1

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Lesson Description

How to create the illusion of texture in a graphite drawing and the factors that most contribute to success. The first of three subjects is explored in this module. In this lesson, we draw a rose with graphite pencils.

Lesson Materials

Smooth Bristol paper, H, HB, 2B, and 4B graphite pencils, kneaded eraser.

Lesson Resources

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Reference Image

Course Curriculum

Lesson 1: Introduction and Materials (6:15)Lesson 2: Graphite Grades and Sharpening (8:31)Lesson 3: Erasers (10:49)Lesson 4: Mark Making and Blending (12:57)Lesson 5: Light and Shadow - Part 1 (8:32)Lesson 6: Light and Shadow - Part 2 (7:45)Lesson 7: Sketching (12:16)Lesson 8: Texture Study 1 (14:50)Lesson 9: Texture Study 2 (15:16)Lesson 10: Texture Study 3 - Part 1 (12:30)Lesson 11: Texture Study 3 - Part 2 (12:12)Lesson 12: Landscape Drawing - Part 1 (13:26)Lesson 13: Landscape Drawing - Part 2 (9:45)Lesson 14: Portrait Drawing - Part 1 (12:49)Lesson 15: Portrait Drawing - Part 2 (13:05)Lesson 16: Powdered Graphite (13:09)Lesson 17: Water Soluble Graphite (8:33)Lesson 18: Colored Graphite (16:35)Lesson 19: Framing / Matting / Conclusion (9:30)

Lesson Discussion

  1. I loved doing this rose. I have a question, though. I don’t have any Bristol paper yet, so I used white sketching paper. I didn’t get the smoothness that you have. Is it because of the paper, did you use a stump, or did you take more time and care? Thanks.

    Your courses are really excellent and just challenging enough. Every time I finish, I can’t wait for the next one. My family was amazed at my gorilla, haha.

  5. This was an incredibly difficult drawing for me. Drawing the outline of the rose accurately was very tricky. I can understand how blind contour drawing helps. I noticed that I would draw a part of the rose in conjunction with another part, thinking it was accurate. But when I went to draw something else onto it, I realised how inaccurate my previous parts of the drawing were. Aaaagggghhhh! I also found it very overwhelming trying to actually work out where to start to draw the rose. Then there’s the shading. Trying to make it smooth without any joins. Oh well. You know what they say – practice makes progress!

  6. Yes having trouble knowing which direction to use to make petals look 3D and how to sketch where the darker and lighter value will be?
    Thx … this is very challenging but I’m loving it!
    Did better with the tennis shoe than the rose!😁

    • Hi Tan,

      If you are planning to finish the work with watercolor, I would only use contour lines to draw the subject. Then erase away as much of the graphite as possible before adding watercolor. You can certainly add watercolor over a graphite drawing, but I’m not sure the results will be what you expect.

  10. Concentrating on light pressure to avoid the shine – Check!
    Also concentrating on stroke direction – Check!
    And concentrating on switching to the 2B for darkness – Check!
    No hard edges due to light pressure and blending just with the pencil and no stumps, fingers, tissues or fancy magic – Check!
    Getting the proportions right – Semicheck!
    Making sure to identifiy the correct values and relations to neighboring values – FAIL!
    Picking a cheap sketch book instead of the expensive fine bristol paper, because knowing it’ll probably not turn out to be a master piece – Supercheck!

    Bottom line – I needed this lessong 🙂

  11. I just finished this rose…my very first graphite drawing, and I am so pleased! As a beginner, I thought the lesson was just right…easy to understand and detailed enough that even a beginner like me could understand. Loved it! Looking forward to the next module!

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