Whether your pencil portrait will be a masterpiece depends to a large extent on the type and quality of your drawing tools. This applies to every craft. In this article, I will give an overview of the tools that the professional pencil artist uses when drawing a pencil portrait.
What does it take to draw pencil portraits? The bare minimum is of course a pencil and a piece of paper. Hardly any equipment is an advantage and a challenge at the same time. Drawing is to art what boxing is to sport. The fewer tools you have, the more skilled you’ll need to be to stand out. It is therefore particularly important that as a pencil artist you not only use the right tools, but also the right quality tools. Below I feature just about every drawing utensil you’ll ever need. Study the list and then choose according to your style and ambitions:
* pencils
Drawing pencils generally come in softness and hardness grades: 9H, 8H , …, 2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B, 3B, …, 8B, 9B, with 9H being the hardest and 9B being the most softest. The F-Pen is the odd duck of the line, but it gives pretty fine and soft lines and is often used to draw hair. The HB pencil separates the hard H pencils from the softer Portrait zeichnen lassen B pencils.
To start, you can try 2H (hard), HB, 2B, 4B and 6B (soft) pens. Later you can always adapt your selection to suit your style and technique.
* paper
Try a range of different textured papers. For portraits I prefer a 2 ply Bristol acid free heavy smooth finish. But your choice should be guided by your own style, or simply whether you like a particular paper finish or not.
* Drawing board
A 1/4 inch hardened sheet of masonite or plexiglass at least 16 x 20 inches will do.
* Clips or masking tape
This fixes the paper on your drawing board and is useful in many other situations. I use a lot of them.
* muzzle stick
This stick is used to stabilize your hand and avoid smudging your work (Figure 1.).
* Broom. A desk broom is used to occasionally brush dirt off your work. This also avoids streaks and saves time because you have to erase less (Figure 2.).
* Sheet of bond paper
Put this sheet back under your drawing hand to avoid smearing your drawing while you work.
* Pencil sharpener
You need a rugged little device to take with you on the go and industrial-grade electronics for your studio.
* Editable fixative
This is a spray used to fix the finished portrait. This protects the drawing and makes it safe from future smudging (Figure 3.).
* erasers
You need two types: 1. One made of vinyl and; 2. a kneaded. A vinyl eraser is the usual hard rectangular type. A kneaded eraser is the gray kind that acts like putty (Figure 4.).
* Ruler
A regular 12 inch metal ruler will do. Make Bild zeichnen lassen sure you can read the divisions on the ruler clearly.
* Mixing tortillons
These are spirally wrapped paper cones used to blend a darker area into a lighter one (Figure 5.).
* Paper handkerchief
They use tissue paper as another blending tool.
That’s all. As you practice (yes, practice), try out some of the tools above and see if they suit your style of drawing. Be flexible, but try to work towards a final style of pencil portrait drawing that feels comfortable to you and involves a subset of the above tools used in a practiced and almost unconscious way.