Interior Design Drawing E-Book

Alan Hughes

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 275

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Interior design is a multidiscipline profession blending spatial, technical and aesthetic knowledge. The skill involved in manipulating these elements to solve specific design problems is intrinsically linked to drawing. Interior Design Drawing explores all aspects of this vital design skill, from sketching to record information, through orthographics and development to analyse the problem, to presentation drawing to communicate the solution.Explore the role of drawing in the design process; understand the main orthographic drawings; use line, tone and colour across 2D and 3D drawings; add texture and atmosphere to drawings; consider aspects of composition and presentation of a set of drawings; an overview of how drawing relates to the process of interior design. This guide covers sketching to record information, elevation and projection, and making final presentation drawings to communicate solutions to clients.Fully illustrated with over 100 colour illustrations.Alan Hughes has an MA in Interior Architecture and has taught at undergraduate and post-graduate levels for many institutions.

Leseprobe

INTERIOR DESIGN DRAWING

Alan Hughes

First published in 2008 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2013

© Alan Hughes 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 667 3

Dedication

For Jamie, Lucy and Vita

Frontispiece from a design drawing by Izzy Winkler

CONTENTS

1   Introduction

The Purposes of Interior Design

Methods of Communication in Interior Design

Designing with Intention

Why Designers Draw

2   Sketching

Why We Need to Sketch

Seeking and Looking

Understanding What Can Be Seen

Tools for the Job

The Process

Method

Sketching to Scale

3   Orthographics

Orthographic Projection

Tools for the Job

On the Drawing Board: The Plan

The Hierarchy of Line

Multi-View Drawings

The Elevation

The Cross Section

4   3D Projection

The Formal and the Instinctual

The Axonometric

Perspective

5   Rendering Techniques and Shading

Finishing Your Drawing to Suit Its Purpose

Rendering Methods

Technical Tips

Summary

6   Presentation

Your Portfolio

Presentation and Graphic Identity

The Mechanics of Presentation

7   Inspiration

Examining Historical and Contemporary Designs

Communicating the Use of the Space

Absorbing Influences and Gleaning Ideas

Compiling Drawings for Presentation

The Ongoing Importance of Drawing

Further Reading

List of Suppliers

Glossary

CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION

The maxim of the twentieth-century Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce, ‘expression is intuition’, explores the view that in thinking something through we need to have expressed it. This expression may be given many intellectual forms but for a designer, drawing is the essential medium.

For a designer, drawing is not a creative process in the same way that it is for a fine artist. Drawing is thinking, and the constant construction and deconstruction of concepts and ideas happens with a pencil in the hand. Drawing is also communication; the drawings must talk to a viewer even when the designer is not present. This ‘talking with your mouth shut’ continues through the various drawings the designer produces for him or herself to progress their ideas, and through those presentation drawings that they will eventually use to convey these ideas and chosen atmosphere to the client.

So the process of drawing has two distinct uses for those aspiring to a career in design. It is both a tool to aid the design process and a method of communication with an audience.

The Purposes of Interior Design

Drawing is clearly relevant to many design disciplines, but the specific applications in relation to interior design are best understood through an investigation of why interior space is so important and the nature of an interior designer’s agenda. First, interior design is not simply about things, it is not about filling spaces with aesthetically pleasing or culturally and historically relevant objects. It is certainly not about merely changing the colour of the walls, throwing a few cushions around and getting excited about tassels! It is first and foremost about space, refining or remodelling it to serve a new function, create a new atmosphere or correct perceived defects such as awkward proportions.

The task of an interior designer is to create habitable space. This applies whether considering residential or commercial spaces – we spend so much time working that the ‘office’ is often more occupied than the home. For habitable space to work it must perform well as regards function and it must have an aesthetic appeal to the people that are going to spend time there. Most importantly, it should elicit an emotional response; it should make you feel something. The latter is perhaps the most difficult to achieve but it is this aspect that turns good design into great design. Successful spaces make us feel differently. ‘Spirit of Place’ is often most recognized when applied to exterior spaces, such as natural landscapes, but it is just as relevant to consider interior spaces in these terms.

Emotional responses to spaces are more easily identified when the space has a specific overriding function – as with a place of worship, for example. Try to imagine a simple peasant farmer, in the year 1260, arriving in Paris from the countryside to be faced with the newly completed cathedral of Notre Dame. The sheer scale and impact of the building itself would be powerful beyond words. Larger than anything in the surrounding area, the cathedral would have been seen by our farmer from miles outside the city, adding to the anticipation.

Once through the main doors you must add spiritual awe to the response evoked by the power and scale of the place. As our farmer looks inside the ‘House of God’, what would he experience? First, he would see an extraordinary change in light quality, with shafts of sunlight filtering through stained glass, splintering light and vibrant colour across a space so vast as to be almost incomprehensible. He would see soaring arches, spanning so far and so high they cannot be properly discerned; the hushed, respectful behaviour of worshippers; the smell of incense; and the splendour of the gothic interior – all on a scale to make any visitor feel small. He would sense religion and power emanating from every carved block.

This is a long way from a contemporary residential brief, but a request as simple as ‘a comfortable home’ has its roots in more primal reactions to our surroundings. Just as a cathedral can tap into a whole raft of emotional history, so then can a home. An interior designer has to be aware of the key principles on which human beings base their need for interior space. Protection from the elements is of course primary, and this is wrapped up with security and feelings of comfort. This particular need was just as relevant, perhaps more so, when as prehistoric man we began to inhabit caves and chose to occupy particular ‘defensible’ positions. The need to control a space, to be able to see but perhaps not be seen, stems from a ‘prospect and refuge’ duality that we still seem to require. This is as relevant if you are protecting your family from sabre-toothed tigers or indeed exercising a preference for that corner table in your favourite restaurant. You choose a position where all routes are visible and no one can get behind you – you can eat without being eaten! Your comfort zone is catered for. Scratch a business man travelling on the London underground system and this prehistoric caveman is not so far below the surface.

The complexities of why we use space the way we do makes for an interesting study, and those serious about interior design need to examine the thoughts of those designers and thinkers who have documented their ideas. Aside from the more populist writings of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, for example, students of design should look to Gottfried Semper, Gaston Bachelard and Juhani Pallasmaa for a more in-depth discussion of how man’s development, biologically, sensually and aesthetically, affects his understanding and appreciation of the environment he occupies.

So habitable space is fairly complex, it involves general assumptions and conclusions combined with information specific to your client. Cultural background, experiences in childhood, things we have read and the visual ideas by which we have been influenced all contribute to the personal veneer that sits on the more common denominator, the base level that defines us and our shared human heritage. The articulation and communication of this complex atmosphere is the task of the interior designer.

Methods of Communication in Interior Design

The designer’s drawings must show the factual aspect of the design. Plans indicate function, circulation and the routes and destinations of the occupier. Elevations show the balance of the more 2D aspects of the design. Sections explain levels and vertical progression through the space, and 3D drawing and sketching give the best indication of what the occupier will see, and hopefully feel, when in this newly designed space.

Interior designers must concern themselves with detail as well as overall concepts, and the drawing methods listed above will work across many scales and styles of visual explanation. Primarily an interior designer is concerned with space and understanding its use, and developing an understanding of how the proposed occupant of the space will use it is a crucial stage in the design process. Drawing informs this understanding in both cases. So how can this understanding in practical terms affect working method? There are three key stages to design method:

SurveyDesign analysisDesign

Within each of these more complex areas there is a key role for drawing and visual communication. It is the drawn elements of each of these stages that we will concern ourselves with within the covers of this book.

A designer needs to understand the space before there is any proposal to change it. This requires a survey of the existing space, namely the gathering of empirical information and the production of a measured drawing that details the dimensions and conditions of the existing building or room. To do this you need a method to measure the space (a survey), but in terms of drawing you need to be able to record quickly and efficiently those elements that would be laborious to explain in words or cannot be captured well in photographic terms. Often a drawing will communicate the designer’s reaction to the space in a clearer manner, above and beyond the mathematical aspect of the survey. Sketching to record what you see and understand is a large part of a survey, and developing an accurate method of visual shorthand is a great asset.

Design analysis involves the translation of the details of the survey and the gathered information (the client brief, impressions of the space, emotional links and clues for both designer and client) into workable diagrams and drawings. These can explore elements as diverse as circulation, route and atmospherics. You may choose to analyse the task via bubble diagrams that explore function, mood or the preoccupations of your client as understood in your brief. To do this, and develop it further to explore aspects of scale, spatial relationships and sequence, you need a visual medium at your disposal.

Once you have refined your ideas and are clear about atmosphere and function you can start to design, at least as most people understand the term. In fact, you have been designing all along but now you can exercise your aesthetic expertise by looking at colour, texture, light, furniture and fabrics. This final stage is important, and it is the aspect to which the client will react with most enthusiasm, but it should rest and rely on the solid foundation of good spatial handling – good decoration will not disguise bad design. The communication of the final stage depends on your ability to manipulate the visual image to put across the complete sensory package that is your concept and solution for the space.

Designing with Intention

As twenty-first century human beings we are so sophisticated, especially with regards to our buildings, that our spaces now seem to teach us how to live. We tailor our behaviour and instinctively learn from the constructed environment in the same way that an animal might from a natural surrounding. There is much talk of the effect that poor surroundings have on young people, with conjecture about how their environment possibly encourages them to follow particular behavioural paths. The arguments go each way, but what can definitely be agreed upon is that surroundings that deny any aspect of basic human need will have an impact on the behavioural outcomes of the people that are subjected to those denials. By the same token, any environment that promotes an imbalance in a way that might initially seem positive will also have an effect. Spaces hold that much power in our lives.

To some degree the role of the interior designer is to take back a little direction in the process of creating space, by observing the building and listening to what the client says and conducting a dialogue to shape the interior environment to suit the occupiers as closely as possible. It cannot therefore just be about fashion or ‘good taste’; it needs to see beyond the superficial and the often inappropriate aspirational elements to which it has so often fallen victim. You cannot ask a client to change the way they live to suit an environment, even if they suggest they might wish to do this. Gentle changes can be ‘assisted’ but a collector cannot become a minimalist overnight; the designed environment needs to fit the current life of the occupant. Showing this to a client is important and it relies on the quality of the design drawings and the diplomatic skills of the designer.

Not in any other area of design does drawing attempt to communicate so much. The technical competence of the design scheme, the aesthetics of the design choices and the emotional content all need to be understood easily by the viewer when assessing the drawings. The drawing must at once create a familiar and recognizable impression as the designed interior must address the client’s particular characteristics and the pattern and ritual of how they live. The drawings must also announce the new treatment of the space in an exciting manner, a new take on its use and feel – a ‘wow’ factor. The drawn language used must communicate feelings and it must activate the senses to trigger the correct responses. If the client and the space have been well analysed and understood then this task is perhaps easier than it sounds, particularly to those at the beginning of this journey into design drawing.

BUBBLE DIAGRAMS

1. A simple bubble diagram showing the relationship of rooms in a home.

Bubble diagrams are a much used device to address various aspects of an analytical nature. Their use in interior design can be practical or theoretical. Each ‘subject or function’ is awarded a bubble, the size of which indicates the importance of the subject. You then need to consider how the various bubbles function and connect. As a practical example, consider the basic rooms usually found in a home. In terms of family use, the Living Room might need a large bubble, as might the Kitchen. You might want to link the two through a Hallway or a Dining Room, or both. You would indicate on your bubble diagram the importance of the link along with which is the primary and the secondary routes between the two spaces. The primary route might be through the Dining Room with the secondary route through the Hall.

In terms of theoretical bubble diagrams, consider the following situation. Your client may have indicated to you that privacy is a major consideration. You may then go on to analyse the same basic spaces but in terms of how private they are, both in use and position. For example, you might consider the Hall as the most public space in a home, and the Master Suite as the most private. You will need to investigate the building to analyse which are the most private spaces that you may use in accordance with the hierarchy your bubble diagram has indicated. This might mean changing the position of the Master Suite to maximize its ‘privacy quotient’.

In bubble diagrams the size of the bubbles are concerned with importance and not with the eventual size or proportion of the real, designed space.

Why Designers Draw

Drawing is a pleasurable pastime for those who can, and a mystery to those who think they cannot. Whilst some seem to have an inherent skill, most people are convinced that drawing is something only others – those who have been blessed at birth can do.

Certainly a Da Vinci sketch, a Watteau figure, a still life by Cezanne or a Hockney portrait are something special, almost miraculous to behold. This ‘fine art’ drawing, which is often more apparent in preparatory sketches than the finished work, has its raison d’être and roots in observational drawing. It is, however, clearly crafted to communicate to an audience on a much deeper level. Of course we marvel at the technical skill, but there is an emotional content to this kind of work that overrides the simple communication of the fact of the picture.

A good example of this emotional gravity in action is the depiction of religious scenes by such artists as Raphael, Titian and Bellini. Prior to any form of mass-produced visual communication (such as colour printing or photography) these images inspired religious fervour and awe in those that looked upon them, and this was their specific purpose. Likewise, the totalitarian propaganda art of the USSR, the powerfully romantic work of Gustav Klimt or the outrage that imbues Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ all connect with an audience on a more primal level that goes beyond a simple appreciation of the representative skill of the artist. When considering a figurative drawing it is often this representative skill that interests us. However, a non-figurative or abstract drawing or painting is often not as readily identified or appreciated, often due to the audience’s difficulty in perceiving meaning when the traditional representative skills of the artist are not employed so obviously.

Designers too need to communicate. Drawing may still be a pleasurable thing to do but in professional terms it is an essential part of the designer’s skill and as such is used with a different approach to that of the fine artist. Architects, interior designers and students of design alike marvel at the drawings of Sant’Elia, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, Frank Lloyd Wright and Carlo Scarpa and see these practitioners as great visual communicators. They are skilled artists, yes, but they are primarily consummate designers communicating structure and mood for a different purpose, yet still to an audience. These designers use their drawings to explore an idea, to communicate an atmosphere to a client and to illustrate construction. These are the aims of all designers and are achieved through drawn development, involving the working and reworking of diagrammatic sketches and thumbnail ideas, 3D visuals for atmosphere, and the provision of plans, sections and elevations (orthographics). These make up the standard drawing language for interior designers and architects.

The analysis stage is particularly dependant on drawing and the visual discussion a designer has with himself is generally a drawn one. This type of drawing is different from the more formal orthographics and the presentation drawing, it is quite literally drawn thought. The method that is most useful at this stage relies on the idea of overlays. Working on lightweight transparent paper, which facilitates the tracing through of elements of the design idea as it progresses, allows for a design route to be clearly understood. This is a sensible approach as it is easy for a designer to take a wrong turn and an idea might suddenly head down a dead end. If the previous idea has been erased, where does the designer go? If work has been carried out on overlays, however, then there is a record of every stage that has been explored and it is easier for the designer to trace back to the last version of an idea that was satisfactory. Progress can then be made from this stage rather than from scratch. Indeed, ideas flow so fast that sometimes we cannot record them quickly enough and if nothing is to go to waste then every facet of an idea that can be recorded should be recorded.

For this complete package to work designers must develop, alongside formal methods of drawing, their observational drawing skills and the ability to sketch. The successful communication of a design depends on these different types of drawings working together to complete the picture.

It is possible to be taught to draw, whatever your opinion of your skills. For a designer it is essential to learn to draw not only to facilitate communication with an audience but also because, for a designer, drawing is an integral part of the design process. The importance of drawing in the development and communication of ideas is immeasurable. A design idea has to progress and develop from an initial thought to a fully realized conclusion, and this is best achieved and understood through the drawing process.

The purpose of this book is to help you as you seek to improve your skills and techniques for drawing and to show how this helps you to design. For an interior design scheme to be successful it must communicate both to the potential client and to those whose job it is to construct the design. This communication requires accurate visual presentation and this usually relies on drawing skills both formal and informal, with some drawn by hand and others produced using a computer-aided design package. More importantly, the product of the chosen method for visual communication has the potential to transfer much to its audience. You should aim for your drawings to tell the story of the design, explaining form and detail, translating mood and concept, and exploring the full sensory experience that you as a designer intend for your client. This is best done by enjoying the process and by immersing yourself in the atmosphere you wish to create in order to fully realize it on the page.

2. The basic language of design drawing: the plan and sectional elevation.

THE REASONS DESIGNERS NEED TO DRAW

To observe, record and understand what we see.

In doing this we learn to look in different ways and build up a visual library.

To progress and develop a design.

In doing this we learn to ‘visually discuss’ and develop ideas and design method.

To present the finished design.

In doing this we learn to communicate ideas and represent an authentic atmosphere.

CHAPTER 2SKETCHING

Having established that designers need to draw for a number of reasons, there are several approaches that might be taken to acquiring the necessary skills. Although sketching might seem daunting it is often the best place to start when getting used to the drawing process. When sketching, the student immediately has to consider the 3D aspects of what they are drawing and as an interior designer creates in three dimensions, this is a logical place to start.

Why We Need to Sketch

Sketching allows the designer to understand an object or visual situation, and the by-product of this is that we learn to look at things in a different way. Most of us just glance at what we encounter, relying on our efficient brains to fill in the detail of the everyday things and places with which we might come into contact. When sketching you need to look closely, to understand how things are put together and how light and shadow allow you to understand the 3D quality of what you are observing. In practising your sketching you are developing a trained eye. You are interested in the specifics, not just the general impression of what you see.

Seeking and Looking

Once you feel you have the fundamentals, which should be by the end of this chapter, take a small sketchbook and a favourite pencil and take a walk through the area in which you live or work. Try recording the materials you see on the buildings that you pass. Start to look at the combinations of regular building materials, in terms of their function and how they look. Note down anything that takes your eye and try to sketch it. Try looking (as discretely as possible!) at the glass in the windows, for example: how much can you see in and how much is reflection, and what changes this balance?

Stonework on a building is often texturally different depending on where on the façade it is used – look for rusticated masonry (textured stone) at corners and around windows and doors. Examine and record the pattern and the tonal mix in the stone. Look at wood and metal and where they are used in a similar situation. Take a window frame, for example, and examine the thickness of the wood as compared to the metal. Look at steps and stairs and examine the depth of riser in both situations. In public spaces you will find stairs wider than in domestic equivalents, practise sketching these in proportion and recording the frequency of balustrades and handrails. How do these fit in to the stair itself?

Stop and have a cup of coffee in a street-side café. How close are the tables, do the chairs seem comfortable and how long do you feel you can stay? Look at the height of awnings and signage and observe the retail space in terms of layout and atmosphere. Check how one store uses a material against how another uses it; what is the feel and the result of the difference? Most importantly, check what is at your eye level at all times. See what designers have planned for you to see when standing, sitting or moving along the street. Invariably there will be many distractions but by observing and recording these things you will be starting to unravel the designed world and increasing your skill at drawing it.

BE BOLD WITH YOUR SUBJECT MATTER

Although you might think of sketching and drawing as something you need to do to facilitate your design skill, there is no need to concentrate on typical ‘design’ subjects. Sketching and drawing can be an exciting and even joyful process; try anything and everything as regards technique and subject matter. Life drawing is one of the most exciting and rewarding areas of drawing and provides a good opportunity to record a complete range of form, colour and texture on a human body alongside getting to grips with human proportion. So consider joining a drawing class via your local school, college or educational authority – your observational skills will develop, regardless of subject, and you will enjoy the interaction with other students.

It is important to remember at this stage that you are drawing for yourself. You need to find your drawings useful as a record of what you have observed. There is a chance that these sketches will be viewed by others but they are not for exhibition in a gallery, they are not fine art. Sketches are a personal record and need to be treated as such. It may help to think of sketching as visual note-taking and of the sketchbook as an extension of the diary. Do not be reverential about your sketchbook; it is a working document. Like a diary it should be carried at all times for use and reference for ongoing drawings and observations. (Or, as Oscar Wilde suggests in The Importance of Being Ernest, when in need of something sensational to read on the train!) By making sketching an everyday activity drawing will become familiar and will therefore in time become a less onerous task, speeding up your progress in both skill and method.

Understanding What Can Be Seen

So, how do we look in order to sketch and understand what we are seeing? At this stage in our evolution, perhaps more than at any other, our vision-based skills are considered paramount. We are bombarded with the visual image. The sheer number of visual stimuli to which we are subjected is sometimes quite literally blinding. Take advertisements, for example. Through exposure to advertising, such as a static billboard, magazine page or a moving image, we are encouraged to recognize a message through a kind of visual shorthand. We complete the picture, in a sense, without really looking. This is immediate and natural to us, so it is not necessarily in our nature to slow down and carefully take in visual information in any depth. Suddenly concentrating on one object for what might be considered a long time is a new process. This more extended consideration of the object involves the mind in a more analytical way; you have to think whilst you look, and this is the preparation for drawing.

For designers the drawing process is multilayered, particularly when a design solution is being considered. The marriage of mind, eye and hand creates an exceptionally efficient combination that will facilitate the production of the imagined solution. Exercising the skill of each in its turn stimulates the imaginative process, adding to and deepening the design vocabulary. The intellect identifies what we see and recognize and the memory stores the data collected. From the day we are born we store: what we see, what we know and who we are – our cultural selves. As a design idea takes shape it will be influenced by all the information through which it is filtered. The act of drawing and the use of our sketches contribute to the whole process. If we understand what we see more fully, this knowledge will bear fruit as we use it in the exploration of design ideas.

OUR FIELD OF VISION

3. The cone of vision: the average range of what people can see.

Most animals have a certain field of vision, and human beings are no exception. In the case of man this field is referred to as the ‘cone of vision’, which extends above and below eye level. It has a central zone, in which objects are in focus and range so as to be seen clearly. The distance we can see depends on the condition of our eyes but the cone delineates the range of sight across, on average, 60 degrees (30 degrees above the central line of vision and 30 degrees below). Peripheral fields can extend this to a 90-degree angle and further, to perhaps a maximum of 180 degrees horizontally and 140 degrees vertically. So our eyes take in a view across a space in a shape akin to a beam thrown by a powerful wide angle flashlight, a cone ending in a circle, although the angles suggest it might be closer to an ellipse.

Tools for the Job

So what do we use for sketching? Listed below are the principal items you need to begin the process.

A ring-bound, hard-cover sketch pad (A4 or larger, cartridge paper)

Choose a sketchbook with paper of a reasonable weight, something around 130gsm, a good cartridge paper with a fairly smooth feel would be ideal. Many are marked suitable for both pencil and pen but enquire in your local art shop if you are not sure. Try to get one with a hard cover as this will support the paper; a ring binding means you can use the book more comfortably. An elastic band big enough to hold the page down is also good idea.

Graphite pencils (2B, 3B, 4B and 6B)

Graphite pencils for sketching should be soft-leaded, graded 2B to 6B for example. ‘H’ leads are hard and ‘B’ leads are soft. The number in each case indicates the degree of hardness or softness, with ‘HB’ as a middle point between the two types:

You need to try out your graphite pencils to understand the quality of line and tone they will give you, how often they need to be sharpened and how much they smudge. Softer leads give thicker, blacker lines and tone, even when applied with little pressure, whereas hard leads give precise, sharp marks. If you press too much with these you will gouge a trench in the paper.

Coloured pencils

Whilst coloured pencils vary in hue (whether they are red, blue, yellow, and so on), their hardness or softness often depends on the brand. There are so many on the market now, with most indicating the exact effect you will achieve with them (‘softcolour’, ‘polycolour’, ‘graphtint’ and so on). The make-up of the pencils is usually the same within the colour range, with no H or B issue to consider. Try to buy a broad range of colours without anything too extreme (such as a shocking pink, for example) and consider good brands such as Derwent, Faber Castell or Caran D’Ache.

Buy a basic set that is not too large and then buy individual colours to add to the range as desired. Try to buy in threes – by this I mean select colours that are close to each other: when you see a colour you like, select a darker tone of it and a lighter tint. You will understand later how these triads of colour can be put to good use. Try pencils out before buying if possible, you need colours that will blend to create other colours by softly combining. The less waxy pencils seem to blend more efficiently and watercolour pencils (when used dry) are often more powdery and smudge into each other well.

Fine felt-tip pens

Felt-tip pens are good for quick line studies. The ink is usually permanent and the nibs vary in thickness, some to an almost brush-like quality. Consider them as an alternative to graphite pencils but remember that strong outlines can compete within your drawing when you are trying to create a feeling of depth.

An eraser