Coloured pencils will add brightness and won’t smear as easily as graphite. Graphite pencils are perfect for stippling, but be careful, as they can smear as you move your hand across the page.Decide where your light is coming from in the image, so you know which areas require lighter and darker shades with stippling.This will help you put together an outline to build on. Before starting, consider the different shapes that will make up your image and where they’ll sit on your page.While it can be time consuming, it’s a unique way to experiment with your drawing style and bring a different level of creativity to your work. It’s like hand-crafting computer pixels to build your images. Using dots to build shapes, density and texture in your sketches is called stippling, or sometimes pointillism. To sketch a design outline on ceramic or plastic before filling it in with paint and other mediums, the waxy crayon-like texture of a grease pencil is ideal.To create a true black that you can’t get from graphite, try using a carbon pencil.Charcoal pencils are your best option to create deep black or grey lines for a different tone and texture to graphite pencils.Sharpen them the same way as your sketching pencils to vary the thickness of your lines. Experiment with coloured pencils to add another layer to your work.Use a mechanical pencil for technical drawings, the fine nib will help you to create a consistent line that’s perfect for intricate details.Sharpen your pencil to a point to create fine lines or let it blunt if you want a thicker line.Use a harder H grade for solid lines that you won’t smear as easily. Use a B grade to create lines for shading or blending. Then I use a mechanical pencil to tighten up the details.” The pencil you use to sketch a rough outline won’t necessarily be the same pencil you should use to add light and shade or texture. Different pencils have different strengths.

Pretty pencil drawings