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Here is where I will tell you what you should use to get the best picture.
The best place for you to get your supplies is any old stationers. Don't believe the people who tell you you need to buy expensive pencils, brushes and paper. However, better quality paper will help the graphite/ lead stick better in your paper. For good results, use paper a little better than scrap, or exercise notepaper. Printer paper is good enough. Once you get better, and start to trust yourself to not mess up, you can buy some better quality paper.
Above all, enjoy yourself!
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Getting rid of your mistakes
One of the most essential things you will require is an eraser. You should get a strong white eraser for getting rid of big errors, like the wrong shading.
One of the things I use most often is an electronic eraser. This is a small eraser that fits into an ergonomically shaped holder. You press a small button and it spins around at lightening speed! This is great for precision erasing. |
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Tools
You will need to get several different pencils- from HB to 6B to help you draw and shade your pictures.
Soon I will add to this page pictures of the different shades you can acheive with these different pencils.
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Sweep away!
One of the things that takes me the longest time is cleaning up my pictures with the help of a scanner and a photoshop program. This is because when I have erased something, I tend to just sweep the edge of my hand across the page which smudges the white paper. Sometimes this just isn't obvious until you scan it and it looks all grey and disgusting.
I have learnt from this, and now use a brand new brush- the sort than comes with a dust pan. I sweep this across the page, and it doesn't smudge.
Try to not put the erasings on the floor though. Not good- you have to vacuum it up after!
Buy stationary here
Coloring and editing
This is the part that makes your drawing come to life. You can colour in using either coloured pencils/ felt tipped pens depending on what type of effect you want.
If you have a look at the 'Practice makes perfect' page, you can see the difference in effect. Coloured pencils are a nicer, more natural effect.
You can of course use either a paintshop or photoshop program to colour your pictures.I tend to use Jasc Photoshop to erase the marks I have made on the paper that are errors. You can either just erase or lighten/ darken the existing colour.
Find Jasc Photoshop Pro here
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Triangular erasers
Triangular erasers are also a good investment. They enable you to get into sharp corners and get rid of any erroneous markings. |
