Sketching Guidelines Materials Process and Commitment

I wanted to put together a beginning guideline as often I am asked about how to begin. Sometimes it is by people who are new to a figure drawing class, sometimes it is  just a person looking for a beginning pointer as to where to start.
I can make a description of what I do in general, but also, I can make suggestions of kits to begin with depending what you are looking to do with your art. For some, it may be important for them to be able to get off some quick concept ideas in order to facilitate some graphic work or painting that they are doing. For others the goal might be to keep their mind and hand connected with quick expression of  ideas and thinking outside of the box while exploring creative ideas. This ability can be very useful to someone.
Others may be preparing themselves to study anatomy and  drawing constructively in order to help them build painted narratives. There are many other approaches and reasons, and we can explore some of them and explain a few of them as we go.
Of great importance while deciding what approach to take, is an awareness of the fact that the right materials for  the task can facilitate creation and the wrong ones can frustrate and hinder progress. I will keep this in mind when making recommendations.

My Approach

Firstly, I can use myself as an example and explain what I do and go on from there.
I value keeping my hand adept at capturing ideas and I value the ability to place ideas and concept down in rough format with less concern for finished accuracy, before deciding what I would like too explore further.
For myself, I like to keep a sketchbook and pens with me at all times. In that way I am always able to get into sketching  in my spare time. For this, I choose to use a sketchbook that is 8”x10” inches or less.  A person could use any sort of sketchbook, but some attributes that are of importance to me are the ability to open the pages full-wide with the entire spread flat without arching in the center of the book. Spiral bound books are good for this, but they have their drawbacks. Even despite their drawbacks which include the spiral coming undone at times and needing to be adjusted, I still end up choosing them predominantly.

Spiral Bound

There are however good  bound  sketchbooks that open flatly enough to be satisfactory for me. I will show some examples.

Non-Spiral Bound

The sketchbook below is an example of a book that is not  spiral bound, but also has the ability to open wide and flat, which is good for what I like.

Opened Page Spread

Below is the same sketchbook as above  shown open.
There are many other sketchbooks that you could use, but the important thing is how convenient it is to carry and to work with. You should enjoy taking notes in it.

Canson Comic Manga Sketchbook

Canson Comic Manga Sketchbook

I use this sketchbook heavily and recommend it very highly. I draw in pen and ink and this sketchbook works exceptionally well. For me, I have a bit of a fetish in breaking down the page in comic style frames. And this size page gives me enough room to do so and to still be able to get enough detail to put ideas down concretely. Occasionally, I use a standard HB pencil for drawing in this sketchbook, but I prefer the clean marks of an ink pen. At first it seems to require courage, but after a while you do get used to working with the permanence of your marks and adjust your technique to compensate for it and  produce good results.

Again, effects vary based on what you are wanting to accomplish. For me, I like the roughness of sketches. The ability to be loose is liberating. Others may want to do a preliminary drawing in a pencil or non-repro blue pencil before inking. I have even seen some people draw exclusively with a non-repro blue pencil; never moving on to ink. I don’t prefer it, but to each their own.
For drawing, my general purpose pen is a Pigma Graphic 1 pen. This is big enough that I cannot be to delicate on the page, but small enough to get just enough detail. For some, it might feel like a blunt instrument, but for me, it is just right.

Drawing Instruments

Below is a basic kit for portable drawing with everything that I need. In the first section of the zipper-case I have:

• 0.77 mechanical pencil
• standard HB wood pencil
• two new Pigma Graphic 1 pens
• a Japanese Zebra pen fine point
• two .01 Pigma Micron pens
• 0.7 HB pencil leads
• a German wood pencil sharpener
• a dispenser eraser with long narrow eraser  for erasing details
• a non-repro blue pencil
• a kneaded eraser

In the second section of my case I have the following:

 

• a variety of Faber-Castell Pitt marker pens
• some worn out Pigma pens for scrubbing out subtle details
• a Pentel brush pen with ink refills

In future posts, I will go into review of other  materials and methods

Committment

I would recommend taking one of two approaches. One is for a very dedicated sketcher and the other is for  a little more relaxed pace.
For the first, I like too get 3 hours of sketching a day, for the more relaxed approach, an hour and a half.

For three hours sketching I like to do the following:

• 10 two minute sketches.
• 4 five minute sketches  
• 2 ten minute sketches  
• 3 twenty minute sketches

This ends up producing about 9 pages  of drawings counting both sides of the page, or 4 ½ whole.

For an hour and a half sketching you could do as such:

• 10 two minute sketches.
• 4 five minute sketches  
• 2 ten minute sketches  

This ends up producing about 4 ½ pages of drawings counting each side of the page, or 2 ½ whole pages

Why so much sketching?

You can choose what works for you, but I recommend if you want to make progress then at least commit to an hour and a half per day. I would say that with anything that someone wants to learn. I would make this advice especially to someone who sees themselves at some point in the future being a full-time artist. Thee is no way from here to there without hard work. Choose the level of commitment that works for you.

Here is an example of what can be captured with quick minimal style sketching. Some are better than others, but most importantly, they capture an idea.

With a little more time, sketches like this can be captured