Pencil control is an important part of being able to draw well and many beginning drawing artists have trouble learning how to make the pencil do what they want it to. This lesson is designed to teach beginners the first steps in pencil control by the step-by-step creation of a graduated value.

This lesson will teach you how to create a gentle wash of graphite starting with a very dark value at one corner and ending with an extremely light one at the other. You'll need a 2B pencil, an HB pencil, and a kneaded eraser to complete this lesson. (If you don't have these pencils, you can substitute similar ones.) Since this lesson is meant to teach you control over certain drawing tools, use only the tools suggested to create the graduation.

To begin, draw four one-inch squares on your paper. (It may be easier to draw a block of six squares like I did.) Use a smooth paper like student grade Bristol board.

Keep your pencils sharp throughout the exercise.

Square 1

Start to fill in the upper left corner of the first square with a sharp 2B pencil. Don't try to make the black as dark as you can at first. Instead, get the feel of the pencil against the paper by making several back and forth swings (or hatch marks) with your pencil held in an underhand grip (like writing) at a 45-degree angle. See how many passes it takes to achieve a dark value without feeling like you are squashing the grain of the paper. (It should take five or six passes or you are probably pressing too hard.) Now gently fill in the rest of the diagonal first half of the square. Lighten the strokes as you approach the middle by not making as many passes and by using a lighter pressure on the pencil. At first, creating hatching that gradually lightens may be a little challenging. If you want, you can practice on a separate piece of paper before you start to fill the squares.

In the middle of the square, switch to the HB pencil. Try to match the value of the hatches created by the 2B at that point but, again, don't press too hard. Make several back and forth strokes instead of trying to darken it all at once. Make sure your pencil is sharp and hold it at a 45-degree angle to your paper as in the last step. Gradually lighten your strokes as you approach the bottom right corner. Leave the white of the paper showing in the corner. You may find creating this part of the graduation challenging, too, but it will become easier with practice.

Square 2

Once again, create a graduation starting with the 2B pencil in the upper left corner of the square and switching to the HB pencil at the diagonal half mark. This time, though, make the graduations even smoother by filling in the spaces between your hatch marks with the sharp tips of your pencils.

Square 3

Create the graduation in the same way as the last square, including filling in the spaces between your hatch marks. Try to make your individual hatch marks disappear. You will notice that the soft lead (2B) and the hard lead (HB) do not blend perfectly where they meet. You will blend them in the next square.

Square 4

Create the graduation once more in the final square, including smoothing out the hatch marks as much as possible. To better bend the HB and 2B hatching at the center diagonal line where they meet, use the HB as a blender. At the diagonal half mark, use the HB pencil to blend the two by darkening the lighter half (if needed) and then by hatching the HB into the 2B's area just over the line. Then work the HB pencil all the way up into the upper corner of the dark half. Notice that you have used your harder pencil as a sort of "stump" to push the softer pencil's lead over into the grain of the paper making it even darker.

To make the graduation even smoother, use your kneaded eraser pinched into a point to gently tap out any dark spots or smudges. Use your sharp leads, very carefully and lightly, to darken the erased areas back to the right value if you need to. Ideally, when you look at the last box, your hatch marks will disappear and all you will be aware of is a smooth graduation of graphite.

This technique will become much easier with practice and you'll be able to use it anywhere you want to draw a graduation. The teddy bear at the top of the page was created almost entirely with this technique.