Following the previous post, I’m continuing on the Krita brushes quest, as I’m testing every single one of them in a small and quick drawing. This one’s going to be a little lax because this category of brushes seeks to imitate graphite pencils – complete with paper texture in their vague, imperfect form and pulpy yellow paper that already gives me plenty of flashbacks to my university drawing classes. Because of this, many of these drawings will simply be cursory or unfinished, and I did not have the time to look up realistic models to draw with these pencils, so I mainly used my own characters.
Pencil-1 Hard. This one emulates hard lead pencils, like 2H. I don’t really have much experience with hard lead in real life either, but I do know that some people use these pencils for really detailed sketches, but for me it’s just a little too coarse.
Pencil-2. This one I think is supposed to stand for the good ol’ HB. The middle-of-the-road pencil used in everyday life, used in schools, and readily available for most beginner artists. I used this one to make this marvelous fanart of Tomoko from Watamote, and it stands out next to all the other drawings to such an extent it feels like an ink drawing. It’s a really spectacular brush which I hope I’ll get to use more in the future.
Pencil-3 Large 4B. Soft lead! My favourite. IRL soft lead is so cushiony and comfortable for long-term drawing and is the best friend for drawing portraits at art classes. The downside is that you can’t really form shapes that well because of its inherent etherealness, so you have to press really hard to make any stark black area. Drawing this Nelly on a bench in Kensington Gardens was a joy. Out in front are Jeremy and Gunney.
Pencil-4 Soft. The name for this one’s a bit misleading because the thumbnail is showing a mechanical pencil, and it really feels like one. The truly soft pencil is the one above, although this one also feels very light. Mechanicals are the ones I use IRL for tiny details, while I use HB and 2B for large shapes. This here’s Jeremy with his mates, Gunney and Lexie, as they’re discussing some plan, probably how to prank Professor Beatwhacker or something.
Pencil-5 Tilted. This one’s like Pencil-2 but slanted so it leaves a streak, and very useful for colouring-in techniques. I tried my hand at this with this portrait and landscape of Edwin Arthurs, Jeremy’s granddad who used to be a WW2 sailor. I tried using it for shading purposes but it didn’t really work for cartoon figures. It’s great for drawing the sky and the sun though!
Pencil-6 Quick Shade. This isn’t exactly one pencil as it is a quick copy-paste technique of several HBs softly tracing at once. It’s meant to be a shorthand instead of patiently drawing every single one of these pencil lines, and the overall effect is very cool. I had a lot of fun drawing Gunney this way, engulfed in shadow, although my shading wasn’t exaclty even, and it sticks out like a sore thumb. And there’s something really sad about ascribing such dramatic lighting to a cartoon figure. It’s like trying to cure the Count from Sesame Street from alcoholism.
I half-assed many of these but there are pens coming next and I’m excited for what they offer. Many of these I did with no pre-planning as they’re meant to be done and I hope this trend ends with the new batch. We’ll see.