Highlight the line

Hello, happy sketching!

We are going to emphasize a line.  This means, that you have to give weight to your pencil tip.

And this is rule number five.

What exactly does that mean? Quite simply, you draw a line in such a way that, as you draw the line,

you constantly apply vivid and interactive pressure

to the pencil in different ways.

Yes, this is a really big challenge for your sensitivity skills , so it really needs to be practiced.

I’ll make an analogy with .. riding a bicycle. Accentuation is like cycling: we are constantly compensating to stay in the equilibrum – vivid and interactively – for what is in front of you.

So far so good, but what are the criteria for pressing the pen to create the accent?
The first thing is, of course, brightness or darkness. If something is dark, you put more weight on the pen, so the stroke is darker and wider.

But that is not all.

Whenever something is bold, the pressure is increased. Like it is while speakting, there you do it with your voice.

And because in sketching we are always looking for the striking, or perhaps even the essential – yes, the essential, that sounds almost philosophical, perhaps it is … we are always looking for the essential in sketching.

In short, we always accentuate the essential. That is, where it becomes exciting for the viewer.

Because the viewer’s eye can be guided through the picture by the pressure of the pencil. Where do you want the viewer to look at?  That’s where the stroke is more pronounced.

To sum up:
The accentuation of the stroke is achieved by modulating the thickness and brightness of the stroke by applying more or less pressure to the pencil. These differences give life to the drawing.

Put many strokes and give pressure to the tool tip, there, where you want to guide the observers eye to.