Admin There is something magical and also something daunting about starting a new sketch book.
So I got myself a couple of A5 Winsor & Newton heavy weight wire-o sketch books.
50 sheets of glorious 170gsm white paper. Large enough to do a decent drawing or study, but small enough to be able to carry around.
What did I decide to do as my first drawing? Also what was the goal of the drawing? Not all drawings need a goal, but this time I felt I had a goal to achieve.
I’ll be honest, I’ve not put pencil to paper for quite some time. So I wanted a little project that I could just play with rendering texture, hair and eyes, with no pressure to create a masterpiece.
It had to be a horse subject. I have lots of my own reference material taken over the previous years (this study is based on a photo I took at the Westpoint Equestrian Fair 2019).
While it was a little daunting to put pencil to paper. I was surprised at how quickly my method of drawing and rendering detail came back to me, and quite relieved at the same time!
Some technical notes. I used the grid method to sketch out the horses head. I use this when doing commissions or when I need to get the proportions correct.
Pencils used were a .05mm mechanical pencil, with a HB lead. Also used a 2B and 4B Staedtler Mars technico clutch pencils.
Erasers used included Staedtler eraser and Tombow erasers, plus some old blue-tak for lifting off graphite.
There is no blending used in the study. I’m not keen on doing too much blending with graphite. I feel that with smoother papers, it tends to not work so well.
Plus blending makes the graphite more permanent by ingraining it in to the paper. This then makes it harder to erase or lift out. I’m always going back and forth adding darks or making areas lighter as the drawing progresses.
Anyway, enough of the chit chat, lets see what I drew as my first study in my new sketch book (Note photos taken on an iPhone6, so not the greatest). Drawing size is 10x15cm.
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