How do I sharpen my pencil Video Lecture | Develop Drawing Skills: Basics to Expert - Art & Craft

okay so I've gotten a lot of questions
on you know ask Alfonzo how do you
sharpen your pencils and why do you have
the points like that okay so I figured
in this video I would show you how I
sharpen my pencils and I'll also explain
to you why um show you the things that I
use can use a piece of sandpaper like
this or what I know you do just get a
big sheet like this you can get a whole
bunch of this for like a dollar okay you
don't have to buy the fancy way and see
stuff like this that really look at this
is all you're buying but you get this
whole I mean it's really convenient you
know it's not as handy and stuff like
that and you know it's cool but I like I
just get a big sheet like this and okay
I can use it for many times something I
also recommend generally to my students
is to get a sand sponge something like
this you can get a small piece like that
don't really need the entire thing but
I'm gonna show you why I use this and
how I use it and why okay now how sharp
my pencils and I end up generally
sharpening for my students as well um
now I advise that you know this I'm not
saying this is what you should do can be
showing you what I do okay and of course
understand that this is very sharp and
it's very important that you use this as
safely as possible alright and if you
don't have to you know you can always
use a regular sharpener okay and also
I'm going to follow up on a video on
like the drawing supplies that I use in
general and stuff like that now first
things first is understanding that this
is a very sharp blade and at all times
it should always be facing away from you
you never hold it like this
no you never hold it like this no and
you never do like this wrong okay you
hold it at a safe distance thumb behind
it to drive it and your fingers sharply
safely away from the blade see that
thumb pushing fingers away and it's
facing away from me and also it's not
facing Ofcom facing down it's facing a
level parallel to the surface okay now
see also my pencil it is face my hand is
safely away I'm not
like this see danger no hold it safely
away see this the index finger is
pressuring is stabilizing it this is
pushing it up and this is pushing it
down so it's stabilized like this and
clutched in my hand so it's firm okay
now at this point I do if I don't do
that the tip I do it at a good distance
and the point here is to shave off the
wood casing from the pencil okay now
what I'm doing I'm not going down I am
NOT going like I'm just okay I'm surely
like this I'm actually at an angle I
would say around approximately 45
degrees like this and I'm going in and
out see and that's how I just shave it
off to leave only the that you can see
it's the the actual crayon inside okay
so this is the process I'm generally
over the bend as I'm doing this
so all these shavings are going straight
into it see now see now that it's being
exposed I'm a little bit more gentle see
and sometimes it will break not
necessarily because of the force but
because of the pressure um or it being
broken inside so it may just slip
outside generally just rock it just to
test it to make sure everything is okay
all right because if not I'll just break
it myself and keep doing because I know
it'll break eventually okay now while I
have it like this I also see the point
now there are three points I normally
work with okay um and I'm going to show
you in a second how I get the points
done but I'm just gonna do one at a time
first so you see right so that's done
let's do the other one
you
here we go now before I actually sharpen
these three points I'll explain to you
why do I normally do this and how I came
to go it actually I came to sharpening
my pencils like this for one specific
reason I was a very heavy-handed um
drawer okay when I was younger so I
didn't really like that
okay because a lot of times my lines
would be too dark in the beginning of my
drawing and then it'd be harder to erase
it's always good to keep your drawings
very light in the beginning and sketchy
so as you advance your drawing then you
can make more decisive decisions about
how strong or a bold you want a line to
be and there are some lines that will
need to be light for the entire joint
okay now because of that what I would do
is I would start drawing with wax based
pencils actually I think you know this
is a word credit watercolor yeah this is
you know like most crayons or wax based
okay most out of colored pencils now you
have something to watercolor or water
base um that can be erased a lot more
easily than others but I would use the
ones that are wax okay so it would not
be as easy to erase now why did I do
that because it was not easy to your
race so as a result what that would
force me to do is to draw very lightly
so I would deliberately sharp my pencils
to the point where I had a very very
very very very very very sharp tip and
that would force me to draw very lightly
because it can break so easily okay by
pressing on it too much I would break
the point so it would force me to work
very light with very light pressure so I
could be sketching something and you
would have no idea what I'm drawing and
and I did this for a long time and I
would advise anybody who's heavy-handed
you know like you tend to press too hard
on your pencils to try doing that it's
very good practice practice because I've
had students told me that they can't
help themselves they don't know how to
actually do it and see and the thing is
with this is that it also taught me how
to slow down a little bit with my
drawing and not rush
too much because that's very important
as well you never want to advance your
drawings too quickly you want to get
time to work it a little bit see play
with the overall form that the drawing
evolved slowly it's like cooking
when you're cooking you cannot rush it
you cannot put if you have ten
ingredients and you put ingredients one
and two you have to give them time to
marinate and to really work themselves
into whatever you're cooking before you
add four and five and so on you can't
just throw all of them in there it will
just mess up the taste you know I mean
so that's the thing with a drawing you
have to let it evolve and as you build
you build one one aspect or one area and
then you let it gradually develop and
that's the thing that I learned by doing
this now as I got more you know I
develop my finesse and I started working
with these pencils more I started liking
them so when I draw I would have three
different points that I use
there would be one point used for
working like very light areas where I
want very light sharp lines and then
there'd be one for like the that would
be the general use point and then
there'd be one for like general shading
okay now of course the obvious benefit
from having long points like this is
that you can shade as well you have up
the sides of this to shade but that
wasn't a major concern of mine it was
primarily because of my line work
because my drawing style is more linear
so cross hatching all these of lines is
very important from your cross contour
lines you know stuff like that all right
so I'm gonna show you now how I got the
three different points that I generally
use so this one um
saying that's just gonna be my point one
the first one so you can use it a sand
sponge or you can use a sand paper like
this or like this doesn't really matter
alright but this is what I generally use
now of course you can save this because
this can be useful for you for your
joins as well if I had a brush close to
me I'll show you you could actually use
this you can actually use this you know
and spread that insert here as if you're
drawing okay so pretty much losing is
you don't waste anything okay so and
what I'm doing here I'm not pressing
down on it I'm just gliding it across
gliding it driving see and there you go
see that point it's pretty sharp this is
nice for making nice lines very light
nice lines okay when that is done I
would go for my this is the general use
point this is my lighter wordage point
and this is my general use point notice
that this point is a little bit shorter
than this one okay and the reason being
is because I wanted this one to have a
more stable or sturdy point so I would
sharpen this a little bit see I'm just
sharp on this one and I would find that
when I sharpen the point with this
instead of the back to the sand paper
for some reason when I sharpen it with
the utility knife the point is a lot
more durable it lasts me a lot longer
than this one for some reason but see
notice the blade is also thicker alright
so this the point is also that the crown
is a lot more thicker here than here so
this is for light work very you know
fine lines and this is for general work
this is like with a journal workhorse
now those are my three main points and
then this point is useful filling in
areas and how I show them this this is
where I use my sanding sponge and I
would pretty much what I'm doing now is
I'm making circles and as I'm making
circles with this I am spinning it in my
hands like this and I'm getting both
sides
and you will see the result in a second
you see that it's around it so these are
the three points that I normally use
when I'm drawing with of course pencils
like this or you know colored pencils I
always draw with three points so that is
how and why I draw with my pencils like
this and how I get them to look like
this so this is like my little because
exceeds very smooth and this is when I
want to fill in areas without making a
line that is not and I don't want to
make a sharp line I just wanted to be
even smooth value and these are my line
makers if you will okay so that's pretty
much how I do it
you