Pencil Rendering Question

[Firewalker]

I've done a good hour or so of searching here, and another hour on google (alot of which just redirected me to posts here), and my mind is just simply blown, but I need help with something.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any good tutorials, or could help me out with techniques for pencil rendering some line art.

You see, I'd like to be able to render my line art in the following style, or similar:

Pencil Rendering of a Guy by Adi Granov (http://firewalkerdemon.mine.nu/03.jpg)

I've been trying to acheive this look and feel for some time, and just now have found some sites of other artists who share this style...

Any idea where I can turn to find either a step by step process for something like this?

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[arghmisfit]

hmmm.. i cant realy say much. but maybe try buying a shading stump or w/e ther called

:chug:

[danteort]

I'd advise against getting a blending stump for doing pencil work, especially since you're new to it. (If you knew precisely what you wanted to achieve, and a blending stump was needed for that, then that's different.) To build up a detailed pencil drawing, what you need more than anything is time. This is a LONG process, and you need to be patient and keep your cool.

Start light, so light that you can barely see pencil showing up on the paper, and the basic motion is either small circles or small "lines" back and forth. The goal here is to not see any individual marks, but to build up tone.

Work the WHOLE drawing as a unit. Don't focus on one area and build it up until it's finished before moving on. Basically, you'll build up the drawing in layers. Start light, and once you have the whole drawing in a light layer, kick it up a small notch and do it again. Remember, be patient and take your time. If you rush this, your drawing will most certainly look lifeless and lack depth.

If you're really new to working in pencil, before you start your drawing, do a value scale from light to dark, just to get used to how to build up the values evenly.

Other than that, just be absolutely sure of what it is you want to achieve. If you're working from some sort of reference (life or photo), then look HARD at what you're trying to draw.

Hope this helps. There's tons of ways to draw with pencil, and this is just one of them.

[Firewalker]

I'm not new to pencilling, I'm just puzzled as to how to acheive such a metalic look to one's pencil art... And I'm also not just using one pencil lead (I'm using a mechanical pencil with different leads, I like how it's always sharp)...

I've used blending stumps before, and, though they achieve nice effects, it's not what I'm looking for...

I've tried the way you mentioned danteort, well a similar method, and I still didn't acheive the effect I wanted... I think I may have missed a step...

Anyway, thanks for the help...

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[gekitsu]

i suspect the solution to your problem might not be a certain technique but a closer understanding of how light, value and texture works.

for example, see the way he applied the highlights to the leather pants. there is no real secret tech trick, its more about knowing what goes where - technique is quite secondary to that, as you can achieve convincing metal, leather or whatever effects with the finest mech pencil matching as well as through bold strokes with the side of a chisel-tipped wooden pencil.

[egerie]

I'm pretty sure Adigra (Andi) has a step by step on his website actually. With comments and all.

[Firewalker]

Adi didn't go indepth in the colouring tutorial how to acheive that look... Just the basics...

But I do agree with gekitsu, I do believe that's the problem I've been having... I've got a bad understanding of light and shading, and I can't find any materials on how to improve my understanding... Though, now that I think of it, maybe a photography book would have this info rather than one about drawing... I'll switch my search around...

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[Bojee]

Have you checked out a book called "The Pencil" by Paul Calle? He doesn't do the particular technique you want but I think it would have the information on how to approach the lighting problems you are talking about.
I was curious how big is the Adi example you gave?
Things tighten up quite a bit when they're reduced down.
Good Luck on your search

[Firewalker]

The adi image was apparently only about 12-13 inches or so in size... nothing too big. And I've managed to find the book you were talking about.... But I've decided to just use my "Sketching" book in conjunction with a photography book I've dug up in my basement... It's got techniques on capturing lighting, and the properties of light on objects and all sorts of stuff, there's about 150 pages all on lighting... So I'm pretty much set in that department, despite the fact that it only deals with black and white images to give you an idea on it's age...

But thanks for the help...

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[Darkstrider]

Copy a lot of photographs and really try to get into the zone, get that lighting/shading to work just right. It takes time to learn it, but the best way is to just start getting the experience. Of course, it also helps to look at black and white photography books! ;)

[gekitsu]

i would rather not focus too much on copying photography as it may give you a lot of bad habits (flat and uninteresting values etcetera).

nothing against taking photos as reference but at the same time, i would try to read up on values in painting, value simplification and the like, maybe also consider studying some masters' paintings and see how they grouped their values.

[Firewalker]

I can't paint to save my life... I've tried and it looks like my cat did it... :rolleyes:

Anyway... I think I'll just get a new digital camera and start taking pics of everything around me again... I remember back in high school I had better pencil renderings than I do now, the damage that comic and anime art do to a person is substantial, but that's all that anyone requests anymore...

Thanks for the help, I'll take a look at some painting books, and some photograph books...

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[Calle_]

The picture you linked to seems very hard to do with just a pencil, it looks more like PS work to me ^^.

I dont think pencil matters that much but you better buy yourself a good ass paper very flat paper to make it that smoth. Try prismacolor pencils gray and black etc they tend to give you a smoth effect :D . other then that, i dunno. God luck :D

Calle

[puffin]

I believe he uses watercolor for this in conjunction with pencil.

[acid]

http://www.sofos.com/adi/tutorial.htm

[gekitsu]

firewalker: its not about learning to paint but the underlying principles that dont have anything to do with paint.
the issues that make an image striking and "on the spot" are the same, no matter whether you use oils in endless layering, oils alla prima, acrylics, watercolor, inkwashes, pencils, charcoal, etcetera

taking reference photos might come in handy but dont forget about working from reference that a) a copied piece of reference will end up boring in 99% of all cases and b) if you were after what a camera can accomplish, it'd be stiupid to use pencils because a camera can do the job faster and more accurate ;)

use ref but use it wisely - dont copy it, rather "translate" it. simplify what can be done easier, change values to make them work for you (for example: lightest lights and darkest darks in/near focal point) and group them rather than try to reproduce them in their endless subtlety.

[Firewalker]

I understand the use of reference images, I'm not new to that, I'm just trying to make my images look less sketchy without looking cartoony... And I stumbled across adi's stuff and I was like "THAT'S IT".

I actually managed to get the beginnings of this down thanks to all of your suggestions, I did a quick drawing of a steel pipe and I got the look I wanted to acheive using both inks and pencils and I believe I've found my technique, so I do thank you all for the help... Especially that "Look into painting theory" suggestion, it really did help... though I still can't paint, I do understand the concepts of depth and variance of light a hell of a lot better now... thank you again!

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