Basic Techniques With Pitt Graphite

The Pitt range of graphite offers all creative artists a wide range of pencils and chalk of varying degrees of hardness for drawing, graphic design and shading. The "Faber green pencil", which Van Gogh and Goethe have already mentioned with praise, has already become part of everyday life. The 16 degrees of hardness range from soft gray to intense graphite black and offer artists a wide range of possibilities. Pure graphite mines are perfect for creating contrasts and shading large areas. These pencils offer endless possibilities to express themselves spontaneously and create different effects depending on the pressure applied and the degree of hardness. They are sharpened just like any other pencil.

“Graphite chalks are an ideal and very economical way to work with very large drawings,” says graphite pencil artist Jay Greig.

The main materials of the collection are clay and a very fine ground graphite. The range includes pencils to draw precise lines and small details (A), of pure graphite, thick graphite mines to draw very expressive contrasts (B) and chalks to shade large areas (C), all in varying degrees of hardness according to the proportion of the two components of the mixture.

Here, the graphite pencil artist from Carson City, Nevada, Jay Greig explains some of the basic techniques with Pitt Graphite.

Lines and surfaces

According to Greig, different line widths and surfaces can be created by holding the chalk at different angles and with different sharpening of the tip.

Hatched

Dithering consists of creating surfaces from lines. A uniform effect can be achieved if lines overlap repeatedly at different angles. Greig points out that these zones can vary in color from a soft gray to an intense black, depending on the degree of hardness and the pressure of the stroke.

Shading

To create a uniform colored surface where the individual strokes are not visible, hold the pencil very inclined and press on the paper very lightly. With the pure graphite pencils very good results are obtained in this technique, which is used in almost all of the Greig’s graphite pencil drawings.

Paint with brush

It is easy to shade large areas using graphite chalks. If the surface is painted with paraffin oil (or with food or cosmetic oil) and a brush, Greig shares that the intensity of the graphite layer will be enhanced.

Traced

As Greig  arques, graphite products are suitable for tracing techniques that children like so much: if you put the pencil on a paper placed on a textured object, it will be traced on the paper. Specifically, chalks can be used in countless artistic applications of this technique.

If you want more information about different graphite painting techniques, schedule an appointment with this artist.