Quilt Barn Pencil Drawing

Hello, last week, Tina and I were out camping at Cunningham Falls in Northern Maryland, and I had no internet service to post a blog. So I decided to give myself a week off. This week’s blog is a drawing that I did of a tree using erasers as the primary tool. The technique I used is very similar to what I did for the sky and mountain in the background of my last blog post.

The reference I used was from a drawing named “Fairy Tree” by Kate Katarzyna-Kmiecik that I found on Deviant Art. Several years ago, I attempted to do a drawing similar by drawing the dark area using a negative space technique and did not get very far. I spent several hours trying to get the look and feel I wanted but was not happy with the result. After a while, I filed it as practice and moved on to other subjects. This time around, I decided to approach the drawing from a different direction. Instead of relying on pencils and blending stumps to get the darker values. I decided to use graphite power and a makeup sponge to lay in the base of the drawing then use erasers to pull out the light areas. Over all, this seemed to be a very efficient method of creating this drawing.

To get the graphite power, I just rubbed my pencils against sandpaper that I use for sharping. Once I had built up some graphite power on the sandpaper, I tapped a makeup sponge on it to pick up the power. Then rubbed the power gently onto the surface of the paper following the general areas that I wanted to have darker in the drawing. Once I had the base of the drawing built, I started with my kneadable eraser and started tapping it on the top left area of the paper to create the impression of leaves in the distance. Next, I started with my stick eraser and started to add some distinct leaves that would look like they were in the foreground. Moving on, I used a 6B sharp pencil to start adding the tree limbs and details in the tree trunk.

Continuing across and down the paper, I alternated by adding more graphite power with the makeup sponge. Then erasing it with either the kneadable eraser or stick eraser. For the tree roots, I added a lot of graphite powder to get a darker value. Once done, I used a stick eraser to draw in the roots. After I had the basic shapes in, I went back over them with a blending stump to soften the edges. Next, using a 6B pencil and pressing a little harder, I added the darkest values. Then went back over the area again with the blending stump to again soften the edges. This also helped to push some of the roots into the shadows. Adding more of a 3D look to the roots. To finish the roots, I then went back over some of the areas with the stick eraser to bring out a few more high lights. Once I was finished with the roots, I added the water using the same technique with the graphite powder and eraser. Then softened the ripples of the water with a blending stump. Finally, after getting all the main details in, I went back over the entire drawing with either a 2B or 6B pencil to darken some of the values to help give the drawing more depth.  

My finished work is not an exact copy of the drawing that I used as a reference. My goal was to continue practicing using erasers as a primary drawing tool and not just copy someone else’s work. In many instances I am finding using an eraser to draw with can be easier than using a pencil and drawing in the negative spaces.

For anyone that wants to see the original drawing by Kate Katarzyna-Kmiecik, you can view it by going to www.Deviantart.com and searching on either her name or just do a search on “Pencil Drawings of Trees” and it will be one of the first results. Also, for anyone that is not familiar with Deviant Art, it is a website devoted to art of all types and they really have something for everyone. It is a forum that allows people to share their art no matter their skill level. I really recommend checking it out.

If you have any comments, I would love to hear from you. Thank you and have a good week.