Drawing techniques: dry media and wet media
This domain tests control of mark and tone in media that mostly refuse correction. Questions pair a medium with a support, ask how to build a value scale without mud, or ask which tool produces a given mark.
Dry media
- Graphite runs on the H/B scale: 2H for construction lines, HB for general work, 6B for darks. A sharp point draws line, the side of the lead lays broad tone. Heavy pressure produces gloss that betrays overworking.
- Charcoal: vine or willow charcoal has little binder, is pale grey, dusty and easily erased; compressed charcoal is dense black, harder to lift. A kneaded eraser lifts without abrasion. Fix in thin passes at about 30 cm.
- Pastel: soft pastel is pigment-rich with minimal binder and needs paper tooth (Mi-Teintes, sanded card) to hold layers; hard pastel takes detail; oil pastel is waxy, blends with solvent or finger and is not erasable. Fixative dulls the brightest passages.
- Coloured pencil: wax-based pencils blend by burnishing or solvent and can bloom white; oil-based pencils hold a finer point. Work light to dark and keep the lightest values as bare paper.
Wet media
- Ink is either waterproof or water-soluble; check before layering. A dip nib hatches, a brush carries wash, a technical pen gives an even line.
- Wash is ink diluted with water. Build it in successive layers from light to dark and let each dry, or you lift the layer beneath and produce a muddy bloom.
- Markers: alcohol-based markers blend and layer but bleed through thin paper, so use marker paper; water-based markers give flat, streak-free colour. Both go light to dark, because the darkest stroke cannot be lightened.
Worked example
A four-value ink study of a sphere: dilute ink to roughly 10%, 25%, 50% and 80%; reserve paper white for the highlight; lay the 10% wash over the whole form; add the 25% band up to the terminator; place the 50% in the core shadow; keep the 80% for the cast shadow edge and a few hatched accents with a 0.3 pen. Each layer dries before the next, so no wash disturbs the one below.
Traps that cost marks
- Changing hatching direction mid-area, which reads as a change of plane.
- Spraying fixative on ink or watercolour, which does nothing useful and can bloom.
- Drawing water-based marker over non-waterproof ink and smearing the linework.
- Building charcoal darks by rubbing instead of layering, which kills the paper tooth.