Pen and Ink Crosshatching - A simple introduction Video Lecture - Complete

hey everyone so I haven't actually
created video for you guys in the world
I've actually been taking some time to
kind of reassess how I want to move
forward with creating content for you
over the years several of you have asked
me about having an option where you can
have access to certain videos where I
would be much more in depth and maybe
you know break things down a little bit
simpler for you and also provide certain
resources that I'm not able to do here
um you know I don't go as in-depth in
certain videos as I would like to some
of them I don't necessarily prepare the
I don't go through the preparatory part
of the drawing and some of them I
fast-forward through and sometimes I
feel a little bad time lapse through
some of the drones because I know you
like me to slow down and and really take
my time and going through so you can see
the process that I work with and I think
that's something I'm going to be working
on providing for you sometime soon all
right so you can look forward to that so
in this video I'm going to just give you
some basic tips on cross hatching and
hopefully this can give you the
foundation to move forward and actually
you know start practicing or even
develop your practice and start paying
attention to certain things that you may
have not you know necessarily notice
before that can definitely you know
improve your drawing now this is
something that I definitely addressed in
my book um fail two of you who have
purchased it again thank you so much and
I really appreciate the support and you
know even those who took the time to
write a little review on Amazon I really
appreciate it I've seen some really it
really warms my heart to see some of the
comments and the reviews that I've read
and it just really inspiring and anyhow
just encouraging and just um makes me
feel really encouraged to move forward
I'm thinking in the future also of
providing some kind of a um a guide to
this as well um something I think will
be useful too that's created
specifically for using with the book you
know I think that's something that you
guys would really benefit from so in
this video as I said I'm going to cover
some basics of cross hatching alright I
feel like I didn't really take the time
to just do a really basic introduction
do you know how important cross-hatching
is or just what it is all right so I'm
going to first of all I mean
cross-hatching is just you know up one
form of mark making with pen and ink I
mean you have staples you know you can
have scribbles you can have um different
forms of making marks and cross-hatching
is just one of them and it's almost like
think of like drawing with pencil you
know you have value and you can use this
to UM you know describe a form you can
use it to indicate like a local color
like if something is dark or something
is lighter you can use it to convey
light and shadow you know light areas
shadow areas and so on
so you can think of cross hatching as
doing the same thing but with pen and
ink of course your main visual element
is line you know and you create value
using line you create texture using line
you create all the other elements using
one only at your disposal okay so of
course cross hatching involves just
layering strokes in different directions
okay I think that's the perhaps the most
important thing to understand here
before anything else is to understand
that you can layer your strokes in
different ways all right this is just
hatching and when you lay another group
of strokes on top your cross hatching
now you can layer your strokes
diagonally which is perhaps this is the
most common form of cross hatching
you'll find and it's a thing this is you
could describe it as like a 45-degree
angle however you can also and which is
something I use a lot is you can layer
your strokes diagonally but not as steep
of an incline see that and you do get a
different form of texture you get a
different feeling and if you go at a 45
degree angle
see that now of course you can also
cross hatch with perpendicular lines see
that and just like you did here you can
also cross hatch going in the opposite
direction so this is the very slight
angle and this is a little bit more
steep more like 45 now the thing is you
should understand what cross hatching is
that it is very very versatile you can
you can mismatch like for example notice
I started with a like vertical strokes
you don't have to start with vertical
strokes you could actually just use two
sets of diagonal strokes so you can
mismatch or crosshatch vertical strokes
diagonal strokes horizontal strokes and
even see this these were the the chokes
I'd used before so they're not vertical
and they're not as as steep an angle as
these are and they're more closely
vertical but these are useful as well so
you get a different feeling so as I was
saying you have the vertical vertical
strokes the diagonal more from right to
left and then you have from left to
right you have the horizontal and you
can combine these in a variety of ways
you can have two sets of diagonal you
can have the horizontal with a diagonal
and vice versa and this is something you
should definitely practice you know get
comfortable with the different feeling
you get from or being sensitive to the
different feeling different sense of
texture you get from the different
combinations you have because you get
you know by doing this you start getting
a feel of like okay I could use this for
so-and-so and you make notes that's what
I do my sketchbook like I said okay this
reminds me of you know like blah blah
blah and I write notes under that and
this keep a visual library of things
that can help you to spark ideas now of
course
notice I've only cross-hatched two
layers of strokes here you can
additionally do
this and add even additional layers and
this is useful for when you're trying to
create value gradation so for example if
you're going from area of shadow to
light or light to shadow vice versa
so you can have two layers three layers
and even four layers and this is
something I discuss in my book as well
about using solid black or creating
blacks you can have a black like this
and you can have a black like this this
is solid black see no areas of light and
I may do a tutorial on that eventually
here you can use this as your a black
but the thing is with this black is that
it allows specks of white or light light
or white of the paper the background
color to show through and this is
sometimes more useful than this is
because this in some way harmonizes with
the rest of the drawing especially use
if you're using cross hatching
throughout the drawing and here it's
it's more about contrast you know so you
should be careful of how you use solid
black inner join because you can want
flatten the drawing and - it can
actually create too strong of a contrast
by creating your blacks by just layering
strokes on top of each other you can
eventually create a black that is deep
enough to create contrast but also
harmonize with the rest of the drawing
all right now eventually I'm going to do
a video where I just saw the most common
mistakes I've seen when it comes to
rendering with pen and ink and it's
important to be aware of those things
because I see those mistakes very very
often now the most important thing when
it comes to cross hatching or just
drawing with ink in general is that you
should try your best to be consistent
with your strokes okay consistency is
key with pen and ink drawing because if
if you don't have as much consistency
you have to understand that see with
pencil you can just have an area of gray
like that but with pen and ink you know
you can have jokes like this or strokes
like these or strokes like these and
they can each be read differently based
on the context they're being used in so
with pen and ink drawing it it really
teaches you to be more sensitive of the
use of line and this adjusts their
suggestions this
Jess cheon's that they make because
based on how lines are laid down can
imply something that you didn't intend
and it's important to be aware of how
you use them so in this case it's
important to be consistent with your way
of using your strokes so that way they
can serve the purpose that you intend
okay you will find that you'll use your
strokes to generally define the form or
to indicate light and shadow or to show
local value now it's important that you
learn to be to use your your cross
hatching as a way of like feeling the
form so in other words you're not just
simply arbitrarily laying down lines on
paper you must feel this like I'll show
you a simple example for example say I
have a shape like that now if I'm laying
my strokes you know on this I am gonna
do it in a way where I see what i'm
doing here is following this i am i'm
laying down the strokes in a way that
follows the plane so for example if I
had this another plane like this I would
not use strokes like these I would leave
you strokes like this you see
it's not if I'm cross-hatching I'm
making myself aware of the incline or
orientation of the plane and all the
strokes that you lay down should be
consistent with that plane you should
feel the three dimensional or three
dimensional 'ti of that plane and your
strokes should follow that so the same
way if you're if if it's like this then
my strokes follow it as well see that
and so on all right so likewise when it
comes to drawing forms that are curved
like this then you know that your
strokes will also follow this see and
notice I'm doing one layer at a time and
even under here I don't see this as a
flat shape like that no I'm seeing this
as a curved plane so my lines are
following the cross contour of that form
so even though I put some straight lines
on there I'm also accentuated the
curvature of that C so likewise if I
have a cylinder like this I would not
have the lines that dominate this be
like this see that doesn't help to
accentuate that cylinder if I have a
sense of the words you have to think
about the orientation of the form that
you're describing when you choose your
strokes see these types of strokes will
accentuate that form and likewise if the
form were turned another way or oriented
another way like this then I would use
strokes like so I would not use strokes
like this that destroys the form or
flattens the form so you have to think
about the orientation the cross contour
the form of describing likewise with a
spherical form so this can be a circle
just pretty flat or it could be a
spherical form see three dimensional
flat three dimensional so I'd be very
careful of the types of strokes that I
use to describe this see if it's a flat
shape I can use these
see that but if it's not I have to be
careful of the strokes that I use to
make sure that they accentuate the form
they follow the firm see what I'm saying
all right so be aware also that you can
vary your cross hatching using different
points so for example you know you may
find that okay you know these strokes
are a little bit too harsh for the form
or the texture I'm trying to describe
and that's when it's useful to use a
finer point this is useful for when
you're shading areas background areas or
you're trying to indicate local color so
you could use these this type of you
know cross hatching with a point like
this when you're shading an area that's
lighter and this would be in here that's
bolder or if you want to create a sense
of texture then you could even use a
bolder point or a brush point like this
and this can be useful if you want to
indicate like a texture for like fabric
and so on so you know you have to you
know be willing to experiment cross
hatching is very very versatile and is
that's why it's so perhaps one of the
most common forms of mark making with
pen and ink and this is just using
straight strokes you know of course you
can also take it a step further you can
use curved hatching and then
see so you're still maintaining the
integrity of the crosshatch so in other
words even though I'm curving like this
they're not just arbitrarily placed like
that they're still being consistent
still being consistent and you can take
it a step further you can make it make
them very short or very long and you'll
find that all of these different ways of
laying down your strokes carry different
characteristics that suits different
subjects so hopefully you found this
useful in some way or inspiring or even
entertaining you know and if you do I'd
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you know hopefully you can use some of
this to improve your own drawing all
right so I'll see you in the next video
guys
you