Which paper?

Have you ever picked up the nearest pad of paper, started drawing, and known within one stroke that you'd made a mistake?

I did exactly that while writing my newest page. The nearest pad was a rough Arches watercolour pad, and the moment my Lightfast pencil moved across it I heard it. Like a garden broom drawn over rough cement! The sound might not bother you, but it bothers me a great deal, and then there were all those white specks where the pencil skipped over the grain.

Since we last spoke I've been testing papers, and the tests turned into two new pages. How to Match Coloured Pencils to Paper is everything I check when I pair a pencil with a paper: how many layers it takes, how it holds the pigment, whether I can lift a mistake or trace through it, and yes, the noise.

It also has the story of my niece Katie's portrait, which is still sitting in a drawer instead of hanging on her wall.

match-coloured-pencils-to-paper.html

Black Paper for Coloured Pencils puts four black papers side by side under the same white pencil. Two took the pigment as though they wanted it. One fought me for five layers and never gave in. If black paper is on your list to try this winter, it's worth knowing which is which before you buy.

black-paper-for-coloured-pencils.html

And if anyone asks what you'd like for Christmas, a pad of the right paper is a very good answer.

Drawing buildings

Do you leave buildings out of your pictures because the lines never look right? Perspective is usually the reason, and I've written two pages that take it one step at a time.

One-Point Perspective starts with something you've already seen: a long straight road with its edges squeezing together in the distance. Two-Point Perspective moves you to a street corner, and by the end you'll have drawn boxes, a building, and a table and chair.

One Point perspective: one-point-perspective-drawing.html

And Two Point perspective: two-point-perspective-drawing.html Once the shape is right, the surface comes next.

How to Draw Brick and Stone Walls begins with some good news: you don't have to draw every brick. A few cues do the work, and the eye fills in the rest. It opens with a dry stone wall meeting a brick pier in my own village. how-to-draw-brick-and-stone-walls.html

My shadows used to look like dark patches

As a photographer, I thought of shadows as a nuisance. In my drawings, I didn't think about them at all. When everyone told me to "push the shadows", I reached for the black pencil. You can't go darker than black, can you?

The result was faded drawings with big dark patches. What finally made it click was the phrase "go softly into the shadows", and a handful of darks with colour in them: Dark Indigo, Dark Sepia, Black Raspberry, Tucson Red. The whole story, and the desk-lamp experiment that changed how I see light, is on the new Light and Shadow page. light-and-shadow-in-drawing.html

A robin for your Christmas cards

If there's a tin of watercolour pencils in your drawer that you've never quite dared to wet, Peter Weatherill's robin is the place to start. Seven pencils, one damp brush, and a free outline to trace if you'd rather not draw it freehand. It's quick enough to make your own Christmas cards this year.

Peter's one warning: the first time the brush touches your careful pencil work, it will look worse before it looks better. Keep going. It settles. how-to-draw-a-robin-watercolour-pencils.html

Your turn

Which paper do you reach for first, and has one ever let you down? Just hit reply and tell me. I read every one.

Happy drawing,

Carol

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