T. Techniques — 9

The 8 Strokes

Everything in our books is built from eight gestures. You already know half of them.

  1. Ballpoint lines drawn side by side, closer together on one side to make a darker tone

    1. Parallel hatching: lines side by side; spacing and pressure set the tone.

  2. Two layers of hatched lines crossing each other, darker where more directions overlap

    2. Cross-hatching: one more direction for every step of darkness.

  3. A cube shaded with hatching, each face drawn with lines in its own direction

    3. Follow the planes: every surface gets its own direction.

  4. Tiny ballpoint circles packed tightly in one corner and opening up toward the light

    4. Small circles: packed in the shadow, open toward the light.

  5. Rows of tangled and stacked ballpoint loops, like curly hair or a cloud

    5. Loops: tangled, open or stacked, for hair, clouds and knits.

  6. Short blocks of strokes changing direction from patch to patch, like fur or grass

    6. Patches: short blocks of strokes that change direction, for fur and grass.

  7. Hatching in red, green, blue and black inks crossing to make new colors

    7. Four inks only: red, green, blue, black, and every other color from crossing them.

  8. Long looping lines retraced many times in several inks until the edges vibrate

    8. Chromatic chaos: long lines retraced in several inks until every edge vibrates.

One drawing, eight strokes

Draw on the pad and pause. Close a shape to fill it, draw a smaller one inside to leave a hole, or leave a line open. Your drawing comes back in all eight strokes.

  1. 1. Parallel hatching

  2. 2. Cross-hatching

  3. 3. Follow the planes

  4. 4. Small circles

  5. 5. Loops

  6. 6. Patches

  7. 7. Four inks only

  8. 8. Chromatic chaos

Get the full technique sheet, free

Free Starter Kit: 8 strokes, 4 inks, 3 pages to print. Join the Club.

Get the free kit