How to draw without making a mess

January 12, 2010 11:21 AM

I'm working on improving my "analog" (i.e. not on a computer) drawing skills, and finding it hard to make presentable, neat, finished-looking pencil drawings without them getting covered with smudges and eraser marks, and without the whole page getting covered by a dirty layer of graphite. I think it's partially because I hold the pencil in a way that rests my hand on the paper, and partially because I'm just not that neat and used to working on a computer, where it's easy to make changes. Any suggestions?
posted by lsemel to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

My old method: put a napkin/paper towel/scratch paper under your hand to protect the drawing. My new and improved way: I also wear fingerless gloves. This has the added benefit of keeping the oils from your skin from touching the paper.
posted by Eicats at 11:23 AM on January 12, 2010

Try covering the already-worked surface with a piece of paper. If you make this paper large enough to be taped to your work surface, it won't move and will drastically reduce smudging.

Also, consider purchasing an erasing shield which will allow you to erase very specific, small areas.
posted by nickheer at 11:25 AM on January 12, 2010

used these all the time in drafting school. And even though I have been out of school for a decade, I still use a few of my old ones for my current doodles...
posted by Jenny is Crafty at 11:29 AM on January 12, 2010

Also, working on a somewhat sharply inclined surface will help graphite dust to fall away rather than settle.
posted by carlh at 11:31 AM on January 12, 2010

I used to use a mahl stick which is extremely annoying, but I finally bought one of these and absolutely love it.
posted by robokevin at 11:33 AM on January 12, 2010

Back when I worked for a cartoon studio, we would wear thin cotton gloves whenever we were penciling.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:56 AM on January 12, 2010

In addition to seconding the fingerless gloves, you might try working with harder pencils, which will smudge less. H pencils have more clay content, lighter value, harder core for precision drawings. B pencils have more graphite content for darker values, larger core for broad expressive strokes. Many artists begin drafts with the harder pencils, progress to softer pencils, ink what they want to keep, vinyl erase last, water color details.
posted by effluvia at 12:20 PM on January 12, 2010

I just put a sheet of flimsy between me and the drawing surface. I'm left handed, so I do all my heavy shading and inking from right to left. I'm also obsessive about clean surfaces, hands, tools, &c., even though my drafting table itself is usually pretty cluttery. I have a cleaning pad for architectural drawings that need to be reproduced and therefore absolutely pristine, but the flimsy under my hand is fine for everything else I draw.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:33 PM on January 12, 2010

You could also trying inking your drawings like a comic book artist. Get a 2 dollar Sakura Pigma Micron from an art or hobby shop and trace over your pencil lines, then erase the pencils. You will be amazed at how clean this looks.
posted by cirrostratus at 1:09 PM on January 12, 2010

thirding the fingerless gloves.

my boyfriend also uses a long, flat "dusting" brush for eraser-dust instead of using his hands.
posted by a.steele at 2:39 PM on January 12, 2010

Clean hands. Clean Hands. Wash obsessivly. Wear gloves. Clutted is ok, but keep the dust off. We used to use copious quantities of drafting powder which also helped the t-squares and triangles glide across the drawings. while keeping smudges at bay.
posted by defcom1 at 2:43 PM on January 12, 2010

My suggestion would actually be not to worry about this. You hold your hand close to the paper because you're not yet used to drawing again; it takes some time for your hand to become confident and coordinated enough to stay above the paper. Neat and presentable drawings are finished products, and the exercises you produce on the way there don't look like neat and presentable drawings any more than daily jogs look like a marathon you're training for. Embrace the messiness for now; it's a fact of the process.

A good exercise a friend of mine taught me: make as many drawings in a short time as you can. Since you're worried that you're getting the paper dirty, try flipping to a new piece of paper every time the page starts to get that way and starting over. It takes a while for your hand to begin to get the dexterity and fluidity you need to easily produce natural, clean drawings. Another good exercise is to just practice different curves, over and over again: trace a circle quickly over and over and over again on a piece of paper, letting your hand roll and feel the sensation of turning the pencil on the paper. Do the same thing with a hill-shaped-curve, and a valley-shaped-curve, and ovals, feeling the sense of what the pencil does in your hand.

To Michaelangelo and the masters, drawing was an active way of seeing, a way of reaching out with your eye and actually grasping the object being drawn. In a way, it's almost like scuplting, because your hand has to carve out the shape of the object in the air. It's a bit messy when you're first learning it, but that's okay; just keep on doing it, over and over, and your hand will gain confidence.

Oh, and you could also try doing a bit of charcoal or chalk drawing for a little while; those things are 'messy enough' that you might find coming back to pencil to be a lot cleaner. And it might help you learn techniques for grasping the pencil that help keep the drawing cleaner.
posted by koeselitz at 4:29 PM on January 12, 2010

me: “You hold your hand close to the paper because you're not yet used to drawing again; it takes some time for your hand to become confident and coordinated enough to stay above the paper.”

I'm sorry; that part sounds extremely insulting and condescending to the people who are professional artists and find drawing-guards useful or necessary. That's just silly, and I'm sorry for the implication, everybody.

I think I'm sort of talking about a different kind of drawing, too. The drawing I studied was a sort of preliminary to painting, kind like of Visual Art 101. Whereas other people are talking about expert and professional drawing, often with much more technical detail and drawing mastery; that might be more what you're going for, lsemel.
posted by koeselitz at 4:36 PM on January 12, 2010

Wash your hands and don't touch your face or hair while you are drawing. (no scratching your nose). Even the non-oiliest people are oily enough to smudge their drawings.
posted by y6t5r4e3w2q1 at 5:10 PM on January 13, 2010