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:

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

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

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

Horizontal pencil movements and positions:

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

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.

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Come on!

Let’s put our passion in the visual arts , and belief in the importance of arts education, to good use. Let’s make more banners to get our message across!

The Suffragettes did it, and Trade Union Associations still do it. Bob and Roberta Smith is great at it.

Banners can be eloquent, beautiful and powerful.

They can help build community and challenge preconceptions.

Think carefully:

What would your banner say, and how would you say it?

Send us your images of banners you have made #makemorebanners

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One of AccessArt’s most unique features is our evolving collection of visual arts resources which help inspire teaching, learning and practice. We now have over 1500 resources aimed at all ages and abilities and covering all areas of the visual arts.

We are continually building our collection of resources: if you are a full member of AccessArt we’d love you to contribute!

The Benefits of Contributing

• Raise the profile of your teaching/school
• Raise cash for art materials for your school, or earn money for yourself
• Add value to your teaching and give a lasting legacy to your project
• Work to the greater good!

We pay £42 per resource. Download our Guidance for Contributors for more information.

Who can Apply?

To apply for any of the commissions below you must:

• Be a Full Member of AccessArt
• Be a teacher or artist/educator

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