Over the last several months I have been doing small graphite pencil sketches is a small sketch book my husband got for me for Christmas. These small sketches awakened a desire to return to basics and do a more serious work using graphite pencils. Afterall, I own a few sets of nice pencils, and a “few” pads of nice paper (shh, secret paper hoarder here), and it was time I used some of it.
Enter the Delphi Preservation Society. I received an email from a representative of the Society asking if I might be interested in being an “on-site artist” for their upcoming Walking Tour of Historic Homes. I participated in a similar event with the Society a couple of years ago, so I pretty much knew what I was getting into and welcomed the challenge to do something outside of the studio. I also knew that this would be the perfect opportunity to create a drawing using only graphite pencils.
I was assigned to the final home on the tour which happened to be owned by some friends. The plan was that on the day of the event, I would set up an easel outside in the side yard of the home and do some plein air artwork. I decided to do a graphite drawing of the home.
Knowing that I am not fast at drawing, I stopped by the house a week prior to the event and walked around the property taking reference photos of the home from different angles. Back in my studio, I chose the angle of the house that I wanted to draw and began my drawing a couple of days early so that I could be working on a work-in-progress at the event.
I chose to use an off white piece of paper that had been part of a larger sheet at one time. I have no idea what brand of paper it was. This piece was about 11 x 14 inches and had such a nice velvety soft tooth to it that I couldn’t resist. I knew it would be able to handle many layers of pencil. I decided to use my Staedtler Mars Lumograph pencil set with leads ranging from HB through 8B. Eventually, I pulled a 9B pencil from a Derwent drawing set to achieve the darkest blacks in the shadowy areas.
For those not familiar with the hardness scale of drawing pencils, HB is the hardest pencil in this set and will produce the faintest line. 9B is the softest pencil with the thickest lead and produces a very black, thick line. Most of the drawing was completed using the 4B and 6B pencils, mid-range on the scale. All of the “B” rated pencils are softer leads. As a sidenote, I have another set of pencils that range from HB to 9H. The pencils on the “H” side of the scale have a harder lead and produce a lighter line, the higher the number. The H pencils hold a point extremely well and are great for super fine detail. I don’t use the H pencils very often, they don’t fit well with my style of drawing.
I was hoping to have most of the foliage completed prior to the event, but it was taking longer than expected. A large portion of the left side of the piece was finished before the event.
The day of the event was absolutely gorgeous. Warm but not hot, gently breezy but not windy. Just delightful. If you look carefully, you’ll notice that I did not set up in the same location as the photo I was using for a reference. I wanted to be in the shade and also wanted to be setup to best enable interaction with those on the tour. Since the event was only for about 3 hours, I kept the set up very simple. My easel, which easily held all of my pencils, eraser, sharpener, and supplies, and a folding chair which I ended up using as a my glasses and a water bottle.
I spent my time on that day focusing on the house and the front walkway and decorative fencing. The house was the reason people were taking the tour, so I made it my main project that afternoon.
This was as far as I got on the day of the event. The rest was finished at home, both in studio and outside in the fresh air.
Then, finally, the finished product.
Or maybe not. This sat on my easel for about a week after it was finished. I went back and added some darker values to the large tree on the right. I need to take another photo.
Lisa Bliss Rush - Artist 