Just Black & White 11 - Value Chart

Before I could do a real portrait of real people Louise had a few more areas of instruction to cover.  The first was getting to know your pencils and using them correctly.  I started the class with ten graphite pencils and eventually added to that for a total of sixteen, ranging from 8B (soft) to 8H (hard) with B, HB, & F in between.  To become familiar with each pencil we made a value chart.  We started by filling in a small area of about ½ inch by 1½ inches by running a specific pencil back and forth making lines very close together.  Using the same pencil we then repeated this procedure on the same set of lines twice, moving down one third of the space each time.  Each third of the finished area would then have a different shade showing us how layering our work would change the value. 


Value Chart

Next we learned how to make a cartoon (line drawing) of the picture or person we wanted to draw.  For my first picture I chose a photo that I took of my husband Gary holding our granddaughter Grace.  She was only a few months old at the time and I was very fortunate to click the shutter at just the right moment and capture a priceless expression on their faces.

Gary & Grace

Since an enlargement would be necessary we were taught the grid method of doing this. Step one was to print a copy of the picture and place a small (1/4 inch) clear plastic grid over it. 

Small Grid on Picture

We would then place a piece of tracing paper over another larger (1/2 to 1 inch) grid that would give us the finished dimension or size desired.  Then working square by square draw the small picture onto the larger sized tracing paper using the line drawing method.

Grid Enlargement

Once this is done you have a cartoon which you then transfer over to your drawing paper.  One method is placing your cartoon over a piece of graphite paper which then is placed over your drawing paper and trace the cartoon lightly to leave an outline of your picture on the drawing paper.  The method Louise taught us was to flip the cartoon over and use a 2b (very soft) pencil to redraw your cartoon on the back of the sheet.  Before doing this we would sign and date the correct side for future reference.  When this step was finished you would place the cartoon directly on the drawing paper and trace the cartoon lightly to leave a graphite imprint that you would work from.  After all this was complete you could start your drawing.

Completed Cartoon

Here is my finished drawing using all of the procedures above.