Dragon’s Posterity which just released in Decmeber sat half finished on my computer for five years. That’s what I call writer’s block! I tried to unblock the story for the sake of a young man who wanted book five to read. I read the other books in the series and I drew trying to get a path for the story, but the voices in my head had shut up. In the process though, my art improved.

1. Drawing dragons

Wymar drawn April, 2010

I started with dragons and some of them are down right ugly! They’re fat and even look dinosaurish. The more I worked, though, the better I became. I searched through deviantart for dragons and found help and inspiration. The beautiful drawings of artists further advanced than me kept me trying. In the meantime, I learned about dragons for my stories.

2. Drawing people

Early rendition of Brogran, August, 2010

Somewhere along the line, I decided to draw the riders of Dragon Courage and their friends. However, my first try at drawing Brogran and Ben’hyamene looked more like neanderthal men. With a deep sigh, I went back to the drawing board, quite literally. I began following artists like Paul Stowe and Ambro Jordi. I watched their gifs and videos and gained inspiration, and yet still, the story didn’t come.

3. Drawing with color

July, 2011

Colored pencils made their way into my pencil bag. I found they didn’t sing to me like graphite did. I struggled with them but still worked with dragons. Then one day, a dragon’s eye clicked! My artistic ability didn’t change overnight, but I found other artists who were willing to share their knowledge. Eventually, I was able to make the transition to color. I then discovered pastels. These moved faster much like my lifestyle had changed. Without time to draw, I needed something to work with in short spurts and to finish quickly.

4. Drawing Portraits

As I kept working and trying to unblock the story, I found my hobby becoming drawing. I didn’t worry as much about the story and just enjoyed the feel of paper under my hand and the weight of the pencil in my fingers. I’d spend between ten minutes to a half hour at a time with the theraputic feel of shading, erasing, and drawing. This is when people caught my eye.

Graphite portrait March, 2014

My family loves cameras. My husband has gone from landscape to portrait photographer, while my daughter is pursuing a photography career, and each of my sons has a unique view from the lens. Their photos inspired me to try to draw them. My neanderthal people slowly transformed to become living, breathing humans whose eyes followed us as we moved across the room.

It still amazes me the progress I’ve made, from those beginning cartoonish drawings to photorealistic portraits. The beauty of it all is that somewhere along the line, the voices began to talk again. At first they were whispers, but whispers became normal voices, which moved to almost yelling. Now, I have stories waiting to be told, and I don’t have time for the drawings I love. What inspires your heart? Let me know.

In my daily routine, the way I’ve read books over the course of the last year has been predominately through ebooks. They’re less expensive, and I can take it with me. I can read while I eat without getting my book all messy. I can also give away ebooks for free. They are an easy way for me to get people interested in my books. However, I can’t sign an ebook the same as I would a paperback. I can use Authorgraph and do. If I’m reading for school though, I want something I can take notes on and mark up. My daughter made that observation this week as she tried to do research for a college paper. The online articles are harder to read because she can’t underline and make side comments.

Will paperbacks go out of fashion? Will libraries cease to exist? I don’t think so. This weekend, I saw the value of a local library. On Saturday, I had an author event at our local public library. It was designed for kids, but was open for adults as well. The plan was to spend the first hour and a half teaching how to draw dragons and the last half hour reading from my books and selling and autographing them.

As I walked in the door, the first thing to catch my eye was the bookcase. It showcased young adult books, including Dragon’s Future! Talk about an awesome feeling! My book was on a library shelf right alongside Alliegant!

Five boys from the ages of 4 to almost 10 showed up, sat down and drew. (I’ll share my tutorial on Wednesday for Mid-Week Art.) They had lots of fun, and I was impressed with their drawing capabilities. Even though we all drew from the same instructions, we came up with different dragons. To see boys sitting in a library drawing was wonderful. Then to meet the grandma of two of the boys this morning and have her tell me that they went home and drew dragons all afternoon and into the evening was even more astounding. The oldest boy saw me today and his face lit up as he explained that they had drawn and he had even made a 3-D dragon! The drawing of the dragons wasn’t the ending point for them though. They then created stories that went with their pictures! Yes, if I know the family well enough, I bet their homeschool assignments this week will revolve around writing out those stories.

Here are the results of those five boys. Yes, the bottom one does have something in it. It’s just in yellow-green crayon. Be sure to vote for your favorite down in the comments. The dragon with the most votes will earn the artist a signed copy of Dragon’s Revenge.

Here’s the bottom dragon so you can see it.

As some of the boys finished and left, my daughter came in. She was suppose to be working on that college research paper. Instead, she sat down and began to draw. Her dragons were just as cute as the boys’. After everything was cleaned up, she did get a bit of work done, but then a junior high girl came into the library and they talked about Norse Mythology and other things.

Packing up my supplies, I noticed a few things. First of all, a Saturday on a dreary May day didn’t bring out a lot of people, but there were people there. Besides the five boys, another family came in and checked out videos. A woman used the computer the whole time we were there. A man used the spacious yard to exercise his dog. In the summer time, the library is home to the community garden. The door is plastered with flyers of upcoming events. The library walls showcase a poetry and art exhibit. Artists created hangings, either paintings, photography, quilting, or drawings, and poets created poems inspired by the art. If our little library is any indication of the rest of the world’s libraries, then I’d judge they are not going to go extinct.

In this world of technology, libraries and print books have a place. It’s just a matter of balance. Both can live together as evidenced in my life and in my local library.

Don’t forget to vote for the dragon drawings. Five young boys are eager to read or have read to them Dragon’s Revenge. Just comment with A, B, C, D, or E. Thanks.

Pencils

Pencils are a major component to drawing. Their quality will affect your outcome. I have seen simple mechanical pencils do amazing work. However, much like a camera, it depends on the artist using them. Where a good photographer can take a wonderful photo with a crummy camera; so it’s true that a good artist can make wonderful art with crummy tools. Imagine how much better the work could be with the correct supplies.

So what pencils should you use?

Top to bottom: Reeves 2B, Tombow Mono 4B, Staedtler 6B, Prismacolor 9H, FaberCastel 8B

Graphite pencils come in many different forms, from simple student sets to individual pencils. I started out with Prismacolor graphite pencils. Then someone gave me a set of Pentalic pencils. Now, I have Tombow Mono and Staedtler pencils. Over the years, I have occasionally found a Reeves pencil or two laying around the classroom. I would scoop it up and keep it in my desk if I didn’t know whose it was. For my birthday, I was given a set of Reese pencils. I can’t wait to try them out.

What grades of pencils should you use?

If you purchase a set, it will come with a variety, but if you are purchasing individual pencils, you’ll want to know which ones to get. Isn’t a pencil a pencil? Not really.

Mid-grade pencils

Let’s start with what every student knows–the #2 pencil. Required for those standardized tests, the #2 pencil is what is called HB in art terms. It is the middle ground of pencils. From there, pencils are divided into H (hard) and B (soft) grades. There’s also a F, but I don’t know what it is. It seems to be similar to the HB. The larger the numbers, 2-9, the harder or softer the graphite.

Hard pencils

The H series has a very hard graphite. It takes more pressure to lay down a mark. My favorite H pencil is the 8H or 9H. At first, you may not even realize it has left a mark. It is excellent for those very light values necessary in clouds or snow or a moon.

Soft pencils

The B series is a very soft graphite. It takes hardly any pressure to have a very bold and dark mark. I was impressed with how dark I could get my drawings when I first used the B pencils. Now, I tend to start with the HB, move on to the B, 2B, 4B, 6B, and 8B to create dark values.

Which to purchase

The basic pencils would be 9H, HB (although you could get away with a normal pencil for this), B, 2B, 4B, 6B, and 8B. These will give you a wide range of values in your graphite pencils.

Erasers

Yes, you read that correctly. I often draw as much with an eraser as I do my pencils. Erasers create negative space. They also help keep your work area clean. I have three kinds I use, two are standard and inexpensive, but the third I had to save up money to purchase.

My absolute go to no matter what is the kneaded eraser. I’m sure there are other brands out there, but I have the Prismacolor brand and it’s very inexpensive and lasts forever! The kneaded eraser is like playing with playdough. You can mold it to whatever shape you want to clean up an area. I use the big blob to keep my edges clean. Whereas, catch light in an eye requires a thin point to just dab to remove any excess graphite.

My next go to eraser is a Tombow Mono Zero mechanical eraser. It is a very small eraser that comes in a pen style case. I love it for adding highlights to hair, whiskers on animals, or other small areas that need a lighter touch. It also lasts forever! No really. I purchased a set of refills for it over three years ago, thinking I needed to have it on hand because my eraser was getting low. I have yet to open the refill packet!

My third eraser I use is an electric eraser. Yes, you read that right, electric. It takes two AAA batteries. At first it took a bit to get use to. A small button on the side vibrates the round rubber eraser back and forth. I found it helped to create a point on the eraser first and then I could create very fine lines, even finer than the Tombow Mono Zero. It works excellently for hair and for colored pencil artwork which is harder to erase.

Paper

Paper is another important factor in your work. A regular copy machine paper will do in a pinch, but if you want art that will last, you’ll want to make the expenditure for archival quality paper. There are several options–sketchbooks or paper.

Sketchbooks

My first sketchbook was an inexpensive 9″x6″ book from Pacon. I loved the thickness of the paper and didn’t think anything about it until I filled all seventy sheets. Then I purchased another inexpensive sketchbook and realized that not all books are the same. With sketchbooks you can’t tell a book by its cover but by its paper! You want paper that is nice and thick and has a good tooth or weave so the graphite can sink into it. Experiment with different tooth. Another good sketchbook is made by the Bee Paper Company. They have them for different purposes. I have one that is a 9″x9″ and one that’s narrower. The square has thicker tooth and has more of a texture to it. The narrow one has less tooth and is designed for pen.

Art Paper

Art paper comes in a couple of different forms. You can purchase pads of paper or you can purchase single sheets. The single sheets vary in size but are larger than 18″ on one side and are rectangular. I have not purchased single sheets. Instead I purchase the pad of paper and have it on hand at all times. My favorite for working with pencils is Arches Watercolor. I love the feel of the paper. It’s nice and thick and the tooth is such that you can layer lots of graphite and build up deep values. My personal favorite is the hot press; however, I received a cold press pad for Christmas and can’t wait to try it out.

Now, you should have all the information you need to get started. Have fun, experiment, and relax while drawing. Let me see what you do. Don’t be intimidated. My first works were very basic as shown in the Spanish condensed version of the prologue to Dragon’s Future. The more you practice the better you become.