Lesson One - Drawing Some Lines and getting a feel for the pencil About this drawing Lesson:

You will learn a little bit about using a pencil and you will use some of different techniques for drawing. You will get a look at how you can use different strokes and different pressures to get very different looks in your drawing. You should take your time with this lesson and you should spend at least an hour doing it. This lesson is important and you should set yourself a solid groundwork for your fantasy drawing. You will return to these techniques over and over again as you draw.

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You can draw almost anything with just a pencil and a piece of paper. The pencil is extremely versatile and with a little practice you can get a feel for the range of expression possible. There are many different types of pencils with different hardnesses and different thicknesses and we will go over some of these types and the benefits of each but for now with your first fantasy art lesson you can choose any pencil and a few blank sheets of paper or a drawing pad

Holding the Pencil - There are two basic ways to hold the pencil and I recommend you practice using both techniques. If one holding position is uncomfortable or awkward for you still give it a try for a bit anyway. You will get used to it and it will add to your abilities.

This is the most common method of holding your pencil. This is probably the way you hold it when you are writing.

This is more of an artistic way of holding the pencil. It is very similar to the way you might hold a paintbrush. This works particularly well when you are drawing on an easel or when you are doing large drawings. It is also effective in helping you to use the side of the pencil lead for softer and broader lines.

Now let's warm up and do some sketching and drawing.

*Tip for this drawing lesson: Don't just draw the exercises. Take your time and look at what you are doing. There is no hurry. Try to get a feel for what the pencil can do. With practice you are going to be amazed at how expressive you can be with your lines and shading.

Note The drawings for this lesson are on a single page in high resolution that you can download and print if you want to get a real good look at them. Lesson1 Drawings

Let's Start by drawing some straight lines. Have some fun with this and just draw a whole bunch of straight lines - vary them and make them differening lengths and different distances apart. Watch as you do this. Notice the grain of the pencil and notice how thick the lines are. As you draw more lines the pencil tip will blunt and the lines will become thicker. This is an important thing to remember.

Here is a nice tip: If you want to keep the pencil tip very uniform in shape so it isn't lopsided with one side sharp and the other side more rounded you should learn to rotate the pencil in your fingers as you draw lines. This will insure all the way around the tip gets used evenly. This is a nice little trick and it takes some practice but it is worth the effort.

Now do some crosshatching lines. This is a very important technique for drawing. Getting good at this will make a big difference in your drawing ability. This is a great line technique for defining the shape and the shadow of objects without having to smudge or paint in darker colors.

Practice doing this with varying size. Try doing it with very dense crosshatching and try some with cross hatches that are spread further apart. The closer together you put the lines the darker the image will be. This is very important.

Let's Continue on with the drawing lesson and draw more lines

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