Drawing on Wood Tutorial
I'm back to drawing on wood--mostly with charcoals, pastels, graphite, and watercolor pencils. I really got into it last summer, but haven't been back since--I'd really like to what others are doing with pencil or charcoal on wood, or any tips you have.
I'm working on some board designs for a California skateboard company, and I have a bunch of ideas I want to do with bold lines, with a single subject and a stark background--plain wood, or a single color.
Supplies:
I've tried drawing on maple, oak, but so far I like birch the best. It may just be the way maple and oak are planed--very smooth--for the kinds of things people build with them, furniture, shelving, etc. They're also very hard woods, and don't seem to have enough surface give to take a pencil. For the last couple pieces I've used pretty cheap 9mm or 3/8 inch birch plywood. The birch veneer on the front and back faces is thin and tends to chip on the edges no matter how careful I am with the circular saw--one thing's clear, though: when you cut, put the surface on which you want to draw face down.
I don't treat or spray anything on the wood surface before drawing.
I've included a shot of everything I used to draw and color "3 Diamond"--regular old Ticonderoga No 2/HB pencils, several charcoal and graphite pencils, a couple erasers and an eraser shield, blending sticks (although I mostly use my fingers), and three different sizes of Micron pen for outlining. (I use the 3 for most lines).
Drawing and coloring:
Wood is a tough, forgiving surface on which to draw. I may pencil something and erase twenty times before I really like what I see. I can get rough with an eraser, and the birch seems to take it well. Unlike paper, where the surface is very consistent, wood may be slightly rougher or smoother in some places, with the grain going one way, and different results when you want to draw against it or with it. Be prepared for that. Experiment, test some lines with different pencils, charcoals--I use the back for testing. The 03 Micron pen always seems to work smoothly, but you might run into some trouble with the 02 or 01 when the grain gets rough--almost as if the pen can't get enough tip on the surface to lay down ink. (I usually use the 02 with faces or any details).
The Order of Things:
As I show in the image, I start with a sketch, but unlike digital where you can always move things around, adjust, re-adjust, go back to the first version because you don't like the adjustments you've made. There's no going back. So, what I like to do is get to the point where I think I'm done with the pencil work, then put the board down and go do something else. Over the course of a day or two, I'll keep playing with the penciled work.
When I really think things are set, I'll ink the lines, using the Micron 03 for most of them, the 01 or 02 for detailed work, especially eyes, mouth, nose. Then I let the ink dry, maybe half an hour. Then I erase everything--the ink stays behind, but all the pencil lines are gone. I do this because pencil lines are very smooth and prevent the charcoal from going down evenly.
Time for coloring, shading, charcoaling, smearing, smudging, blending, and more erasing. I usually start coloring and shading with the face, probably because that's the most difficult part. It could also be that if I get the face right, then I have to make sure everything else lives up to it. From there, it's a boardful of drawing and shading fun.
Dealing with flaws in the wood:
I've been using cheap birch plywood because the drawings for my current project are going to be photographed and vectorized with the backgrounds dropped out. I'm less concerned with minor flaws in the wood or surface. ( In "3 Dimaond" there's a nasty greenish bit of material that I ended up curling her hair through to hide, but there's also a very small nick in the surface of her cheek--and nothing I can do about it). I think the best thing to do here is choose the wood wisely, looking for cool patterns in the grain, smooth surfaces, very few knots. From here out, I'll just buy better quality wood--which I think is the best way to solve this issue.
On a related issue, I haven't been sanding down the edges or rounding the corners, but I'll probably do that going forward.
Finishing:
I'm using a couple different brands of fixative, including Krylon Workable Fixatif 1306, which is "acid free/archival safe" and seems to do the job well. These fixatives come in spray cans, and I've been going over my drawings with a couple coats. The Krylon one says it allows for "easy rework"--basically, you can draw and paint on top of it. I haven't tried that, but the one thing to keep in mind is that once you've put down a coat or two of this stuff there's no more erasing.
On ideas:
Doesn't matter what I'm drawing or painting, I like to begin with a story, something that tells me what's going down on the paper, plywood, or wacom. I'm an author--I write science fiction and fantasy books and short stories, and so I also have this drive to create the story behind the pencil lines and charcoal. With this one, titled "3 Diamond", I'm going with a combination of ideas. First, two themes you see a lot in skateboarding are skulls and girls. 1) Girl 2) Suit made out of cat skulls. Check. Check. Second, I was thinking about future warfare, where half of any battle is fought far from the battlefield by communications specialists and viral strike engineers. I'm also thinking that armor won't be bulky and tank-like, but powered up impact absorbing force fields that stop or deflect bullets, beams, shrapnel. And so, this leaves a lot of design room for particular divisions, brigades, companies, squads, enough to show their colors--which immediately shift into camo when things get hot, of course. "3 Diamond" shows an anti-viral tech with implants and other cool bio-hardware, stationed with 3 Diamond Company, "Panthers" (which then drove the cat skull armor design).
There, I have a story, a character. Time to draw something!
Here's the final "3 Diamond"