Sketchbook: Loungin' Around - Half Rendered

Pencil, Sketch N' Wash & Ebony pencil on Bristol board

With several previous drawings, I've posted the rough sketch and the finished piece. I thought perhaps my readers would enjoy seeing a bit of what goes in between. The tower and Narumi at the left side of "Loungin' Around" are complete, and the amount of rendering drops off towards the right side of the paper.

I do my rough sketch with a simple HB graphite pencil. Once I'm satisfied with that drawing, I begin erasing extra lines and refining the details with a harder lead like an F or an H. I rarely post drawings at the refining stage because the pencils remain very light and don't scan well. Before laying on the Sketch N' Wash, however, I make them even lighter by gently pressing them with a kneaded eraser - kind of like the way you lift newsprint images with Silly Putty.

With a very faded, ghostly image on my drafting table, I go over all the lines with the Sketch N' Wash pencils. At this stage of rendering, I pay close attention to the width and weight of the lines. I keep some areas very light to increase the sense of depth, but large shaded areas, like the inside of the window, need to be colored much as they will appear when I apply water.

I typically render the whole image in SNW pencil before using any water. You can make out how far I used water on this image - from the top right corner of the roof to the lower left corner near the turret - because the roof tiles show up darker and softer. Dry SNW has a pleasant graphite quality, but when wet, it behaves like watercolor.

The final step, which I've only used here on the tower and Narumi, is using an Ebony pencil to darken and sharpen important lines, facial features, and hair. A drawing like this can take me anywhere from 12 to 48 hours, depending on its complexity.

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