The Anatomy of a Pencil

By Sheila Ceccarelli photographs by Miluka (Aged 14 and student at AccessArt’s Experimental Drawing Class)

This is an AccessArt exercise designed to make you think about the potential of the pencil as a tool to create a whole repertoire of marks and lines with different weights, frequencies, depths and lengths.

Try this exercise with a variety pencils from soft (5B-9B) to hard (in the F and H range).

Top tips for making beautiful lines:

Think about the lines you are making and be ‘mindful,’ or in the ‘here and now’.

Think about the paper as a ‘place’ that your pencil is exploring. You are taking the pencil on a journey on and through that space.

Enjoy exploring ‘frequency’ and ‘tempo’ of making pencil marks by changing the speed, pressure and energy with which you work.

See what happens if you apply and release pressure through the pencil and try to unlearn how to hold a pencil.

Vertical pencil movements and positions:

Vertical: Try holding your pencil lightly from its top and dangling it over the paper to create gentle marks - Sc and Miluka
Vertical: Try holding your pencil lightly from its top and dangling it over the paper and create gentle marks across the page

Words to help you make marks: flick, stroke, float, crawl, flutter, tap, dart, pirouette, pivot, touch, comb, drip, drop

Vertical: Grip the pencil from the top of the pencil and start to apply a little more pressure across the paper - SC Miluka
Vertical: Grip the pencil from the top of the pencil and start to apply a little more pressure across the paper

Words to help you make marks: bore, stop, skid, flip, drill, collide, wedge, pause, twist, stir, poke, rotate, skip, dive

Vertical: Now grab the pencil and enjoy dragging it across the paper applying variant pressures
Vertical: Now grab the pencil and enjoy dragging it across the paper applying variant pressures to create different thickness of line

Words to help you make marks: drag, release, stop, start, apply, pause, collect, hesitate, proceed, staccato, strike, pulse, jig

Horizontal pencil movements and positions:

Horizontal: Now drop the pencil so it's lying horizontally across the paper
Horizontal: Now drop the pencil so it’s lying horizontally across the paper

Words to help you make marks: relax, gentle, release, flow, push, bare, ponder, forget, zig-zag, melt

Horizontal: And use the tip of the pencil as though it is an extension of your own finger
Horizontal: And use the tip of the pencil as though it is an extension of your own finger. Try digging it into the paper to punctuate a stop and then ease the pressure and drag it again across the paper

Words to help you make marks:  guide, stop, press, stop, meander, stop, ebb, stop, move, consider, journey, stop, vibrato, consider, oscillate, stop, forge, press, step, stop, consider, slip, stop.

 

Many thanks to Miluka from AccessArt’s Experimental Drawing Class, for spontaneously taking photographs for me to do this demonstration.

Follow thumbnails below to see more examples of an anatomy and use of a pencil.

AccessArt has over 850 resources to help develop and inspire your creative thinking, practice and teaching.

AccessArt welcomes artists, educators, teachers and parents both in the UK and overseas.

We believe everyone has the right to be creative and by working together and sharing ideas we can enable everyone to reach their creative potential.

You May Also Like…

USING SKETCHBOOKS, DRAWING AND REFLECTIVE TOOLS IN THE 20TH CENTURY GALLERY

fitz-session-1-44 PB

Beginner’s Guide to Drawing Materials

Hard and soft pencils

Drawing Insects with an H Pencil

Drawing insects with a hard (H) pencil

Play and Placement: Teachers Explore Approaches to Drawing

Teachers Explore Pattern, Shape & Texture with Charcoal, Graphite, Masking Tape and Pastels

Teachers Battle it Out in Conversation with Marks on Paper

Gathering Marks and Tearing Paper to Appreciate Prints by Goya, Turner and Cornelius at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Related Posts

Teachers Explore ‘Line and Shape’ at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge with AccessArt

See all the blog posts from AccessArt's InSET in collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum. Find top Museum Education practice with practical, hands on learning in Fine Art disciplines including: drawing, printmaking, sketchbooks, collage and sculpture. See all the blog posts from AccessArt’s InSET in collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum. Find top Museum Education practice with practical, hands on learning in Fine Art disciplines including: drawing, printmaking, sketchbooks, collage and sculpture.

Monoprinting with Oil Pastel and Carbon Copy Paper

Join Paula Briggs to see how children enjoy the element of surprise when monoprints made with carbon paper paper are revealed. Join Paula Briggs to see how children enjoy the element of surprise when monoprints made with carbon paper paper are revealed.

Using Sketchbooks to Inform Larger Work

See how teenagers make large, torn collages on A1 paper with Sheila Ceccarelli See how teenagers make large, torn collages on A1 paper with Sheila Ceccarelli

Using Drawing to Get Closer to 18th Century Portraits at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

You May Also Like…

Teachers Explore ‘Line and Shape’ at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge with AccessArt

fitz-making-18

Drawing and Making Flowers

Turning drawings into flowers using mixed media

Drawing and Making: Drawing to Feed Making – Making to Feed Drawing

Drawing and Making: processes feeding each other

Using Sketchbooks, Drawing and Reflective Tools in the 20th Century Gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Related Posts

Teachers Explore ‘Line and Shape’ at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge with AccessArt

See all the blog posts from AccessArt's InSET in collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum. Find top Museum Education practice with practical, hands on learning in Fine Art disciplines including: drawing, printmaking, sketchbooks, collage and sculpture. See all the blog posts from AccessArt’s InSET in collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum. Find top Museum Education practice with practical, hands on learning in Fine Art disciplines including: drawing, printmaking, sketchbooks, collage and sculpture.

Continuous Line Drawings (Squiggle Drawings) of Sticks

Look at this post to see how pupils aged 6 to 10 respond to a continuous line exercise exercise led by Paula Briggs. Look at this post to see how pupils aged 6 to 10 respond to a continuous line exercise exercise led by Paula Briggs.

Teenagers Make Prompts to Overcome White Page Syndrome

See here how teenagers overcome the white page with Sheila Ceccarelli. See here how teenagers overcome the white page with Sheila Ceccarelli.

Thoughtful Drawing and Mark Making in the Armoury at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Related Posts and Resources

See all the blog posts from AccessArt's InSET in collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum. Find top Museum Education practice with practical, hands on learning in Fine Art disciplines including: drawing, printmaking, sketchbooks, collage and sculpture.

Teachers Explore ‘Line and Shape’ at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge with AccessArt

See all the blog posts from AccessArt’s InSET in collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum. Find top Museum Education practice with practical, hands on learning in Fine Art disciplines including: drawing, printmaking, sketchbooks, collage and sculpture.

Thoughtful Mark Making

Look at this post to see how pupils aged 6 to 10 respond to a similar mark making exercise led by Paula Briggs. Look at this post to see how pupils aged 6 to 10 respond to a similar mark making exercise led by Paula Briggs.

Drawing Projects for Children by Paula Briggs

Published by Black Dog Publishing London, Drawing Projects for Children is a beautifully illustrated collection of activities that will expand the mark making abilities and imagination of children of all ages, and help fuel their passion for drawing. The book features a collection of drawing exercises and projects taken from the AccessArt website, presenting them in a beautiful and inspirational format. Published by Black Dog Publishing London, Drawing Projects for Children is a beautifully illustrated collection of activities that will expand the mark making abilities and imagination of children of all ages, and help fuel their passion for drawing. The book features a collection of drawing exercises and projects taken from the AccessArt website, presenting them in a beautiful and inspirational format.

Drawing Spirals

See How This Resource Is Used In Schools…

Year 1, Combs Ford Primary School
DSCN4454
DSCN4454
Mariana Frochtengarten
Mariana Frochtengarten
Mariana Frochtengarten
Mariana Frochtengarten
Mariana Frochtengarten

You May Also Like…

Pathway: Spirals

Making the spirals their own

Featured in the ‘Spirals Pathway’

Talking Points: Molly Hausland

Molly Haslund Circles (2013) Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark Photo by Matilde Haaning

The ancient art of kolan

A Charmed Life BBC Short https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p078rmpr

Drawing with a Ruler

You May Also Like…

Pathway: Exploring Form Through Drawing

Potatoes and Rocks

This is featured in the ‘Exploring Form Through Drawing’ pathway

Pathway: Stick Transformation project

Stick Man Worry Dolls

This is featured in the ‘Stick Transformation Project’ pathway

The drawing journey

A colour study of a shell.

See Drawing Projects for Children for more Drawing Exercises

Inspired by Christo: Mixed Media Drawings

Monoprinting Inspired by Goya, Turner and Cornelius in the Education Room at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Related Posts

Teachers Explore ‘Line and Shape’ at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge with AccessArt

See all the blog posts from AccessArt's InSET in collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum. Find top Museum Education practice with practical, hands on learning in Fine Art disciplines including: drawing, printmaking, sketchbooks, collage and sculpture. See all the blog posts from AccessArt’s InSET in collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum. Find top Museum Education practice with practical, hands on learning in Fine Art disciplines including: drawing, printmaking, sketchbooks, collage and sculpture.

Designing Wallpaper!

Children used photocopies of their own drawings as inspiration to have a go at designing wallpaper with Paula Briggs. Children used photocopies of their own drawings as inspiration to have a go at designing wallpaper with Paula Briggs.

Making Big Monotypes with Sheila Ceccarelli

Sheila Ceccarelli shares how she gave teenagers the opportunity to explore expressive mark making and monoprinting on a large scale. Sheila Ceccarelli shares how she gave teenagers the opportunity to explore expressive mark making and monoprinting on a large scale.

Doppleganger Drawing

Teachers Start the New Year with Sketchbooks

Red to Green: Steps to Observational Drawing

Life Drawing: Capturing Gesture by Hester Berry

Introduction to Life Drawing with Hester Berry

Teenagers Make Prompts to Overcome White Page Syndrome

Recording & Communicating through Narrative with Degree Level Contemporary Craft Students by Vanessa Marr

Inspired by Google Earth: Drawing