Drawing

Like painting, drawing offers an endless array of patterns and possibilities.  There are many different materials to draw with and it is often when materials are combined that the most interesting results are achieved.

Materials for drawing are generally inexpensive and easily obtained.  Students should have a lot of time to use drawing materials freely.  Good drawing materials include pencils (grey lead and coloured), crayons, pastels (dry and oil), charcoal, chalk and texta pens (felt markers).

Pencils
Good for free drawing, grey lead in particular. Students can experience drawing with the point of the pencil and by rubbing the side of the pencil over the paper. Grey leads are available in a variety of thicknesses. Coloured Pencils often take a good deal of pressure to get good colour and other drawing materials  may produce stronger colours.

Crayons
Crayon comes in a wide variety of colour.  They are durable and long lasting,  Like coloured pencil, they can take some pressure to get good colours. They are excellent however, in crayon resist paintings, where crayon is used to create a picture and dye is brush painted over the crayon. Used this way, they can produce fantastic results. The crayon can be either drawn with the point of the crayon or rubbed on it's side with a pinch grip over the paper..  White crayon (or white candle) can be used to draw 'invisible' pictures, only to have them revealed when dye is applied (gloves are recommended when dye is applied.

Sample 1: Crayon rubbing

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Pastels
Pastels come in a huge variety of great colours , especially oil pastels. Students can be shown to draw with the point of the pastel, and to rub the pastel with a pinch grip over paper.  They can also be used with dyes to create resist pictures as with crayon.

Dry pastels create lighter and drier colours and can produce excellent results.  They are more powdery than oil pastels and can be rubbed when drawn to produce some great smudge effects.  Interesting results can be achieved by crushing the pastel into small pieces and rubbing them over paper with the open hand.

Sample 1: Pastel drawing
Sample 2: Pastel drawing
Sample 3: Dry Pastel with Smudge effect

Charcoal
Charcoal produces a variety of tones and shades. The black charcoal gives a strong contrast to white paper and produces strong results.  Again the point can be used or it can be rubbed over the paper. Like other drawing materials, charcoal can be used to produce swirls (circles) of patterns, but charcoal seems to produce these particularly well. Many students find charcoal a highly motivating art medium to use.

Sample 1: Swirls drawn with Charcoal
Sample 2: Light and Dark Charcoal drawing

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Chalk
Like charcoal, it produces a variety of tones and shades. 'Jumbo' chalk is very good for students to explore and is excellent for those who do not have a strong grip on smaller drawing materials.  Colours can produce very good patterns.  Like the dry pastels, good results can be obtained  by crushing the chalk into smaller pieces and rubbing them into the paper with an open hand.

Sample: Chalk Drawing with Jumbo chalk

Texta pens (felt markers)
What texta pens may lack in subtly, they make up for in strength and can produce very good patterns.  Larger texta pens are good for students to explore with and are excellent for those who may lack the ability to grip smaller drawing materials strongly.  Interesting results can be obtained by taping 2 or 3 pens together for parallel lines and colours.

Very good results in art are often obtained by giving students the opportunity to mix their mediums. This is particularly true with drawing materials.  Drawing at easels an produce from students, results that are quite different to drawing at a table and this can be explored.