Tips on How to Create Black and White Art

With so many colors to choose from, drawing in black and white can sound a bit boring. However, sketching in grayscale is a great exercise in learning how to draw. You can forget about color theory for a bit and focus on the tones (light or dark) of your subject to create a sense of three-dimensionality.

Although this time you don’t have to worry about mixing colors, there are certain tips and tricks that will make drawing in black and white a breeze. Your monochrome drawing will depend on the materials you are using and whether they are dry or wet media. Talented graphite pencil artist from Carson City, Jay Greig has compiled a list of tips for creating stunning black and white drawings, depending on whether you are using pencil, charcoal, ink, or paint.

Before you get started, make sure you have the correct materials. Check out Jay Greig’s guide to essential drawing materials like pencils, watercolor sets, and markers for beginners and professionals alike.

Watercolor Pencils

The lead of the conventional colored pencil is either wax-based or oil-based. On this basis, pigments and dyes that provide color are included. In watercolor pencils, special compounds that are soluble in water are used (wax and oil are not).

Painter Jay Greig indicates that the water solubility of watercolor pencils allows amateurs or artists to touch up the drawings with a damp brush to mimic the pictorial effects of watercolors.

General Pips for Creating Black and White Art

Despite the fact that in the field of illustration (especially for children) the use of color is predominant, there are many art professionals who work very well in black and white. There are several tools available to artist to make this type of illustrations, but in this post, graphite pencil artist Jay Greig will mainly discuss the pencil, which can get very rich ranges of grays and excellent tonal gradations.

The pencil is the humblest material with which we can begin to create artworks. In fact, you almost always start by picking up a pencil and a piece of paper. Generally, later, more techniques and materials are added, and in many occasions the pencil marks end up hiding under the layers of the gouache or eliminated with an eraser.

However, the graphite pencil can also be the material with which we make a final illustration. Jay Greig proposes that we also try to see the pencil as a noble material, a tool that is not incidental, but a tool full of possibilities. Make it the main technique of an illustration.

Mixed Techniques for Painting With Graphite Pencil and Colored Pencil

Drawings do not need to be created with just one type of pencil. Jay Greig, a graphite pencil artist, points out that, truly extraordinary results can be achieved by combining different types of pencils.

Graphite Pencils: Types and Brands

A pencil is a tool, basically made up of a mine, inserted inside a soft wooden cover.

The most common type of pencil is graphite pencil. Although there are pencils with mines of other materials, such ascharcoal, blood, and pastel, pencil drawing are mainly made with graphite pencil.

The History of Drawing and Graphite Pencil

The history of drawing is as old as the history of humankind. Drawings have been discovered in caves dating from the year 10,000 BC. Talented graphite pencil artist from Carson City, Nevada, Jay Greig, argues that man was always interested in drawing. However, it was during the Renaissance that artists developed their drawing skills in greater depth. The drawing a technique became the basis of all other artistic disciplines.

Graphite Pencil and Other Drawing Alternatives

A pencil is an instrument basically composed of a thin graphitecore, embedded in a shell of other material, mostly a soft wood cover that protects it. The cover can be also made of plastic or recycled paper.

Graphite is a form of soft carbon, dark gray and metallic luster. Graphite cores are produced from the mixture of graphite powder, ground clay and water (which evaporates during baking in the oven). The higher the proportion of clay in the mixture, the harder the mine will be.