An Overview of Rendering Techniques

In week one, Chris will teach you how to render using the most fundamental drawing material; graphite. You will learn about the main drawing steps and study the “beats of three” concepts.

In week two, Chris will demonstrate rendering with a ballpoint pen. You will study the permanent characteristics of this tool. Chris will talk about how to practice mark-making to improve your decisiveness while drawing. You will also learn to make design choices and leave out details for the viewers to interpret.

In week three, Chris will show you rendering techniques with a charcoal pencil. He will talk about his favorite tools. You will learn how to sharpen your tools to needlepoint to achieve beautifully rendered drawings.

In week four, Chris will show you how to render using a red conté pencil. You will study a painterly approach to drawing with this tool: starting from the gesture and contours, then slowly establishing the shadow shapes and halftones.

In week five, you will learn rendering techniques with willow charcoal. Chris will show you how to prepare your tools by breaking them into different lengths to create a variety of mark-making.

In week six, you will learn how to render using colored pencils. You will study the difference between the Prismacolor Verithin and colored pencils. From there, Chris will demonstrate various cross-hatching and tonal mark-making techniques using both of those tools.

In week seven, Chris will show you in three demonstrations how to utilize Prismacolor pencils to render on toned paper. You will learn to use the color of toned paper as halftones. Chris will teach you how he incorporates white colored pencils on the areas of highlight.

In week eight, Chris will teach you how to handle a challenging painting medium; watercolor. You will study the basic concepts of “Alla prima” painting, meaning “at first attempt” in Italian. Chris will show you how to control the bleeding and soaking tendencies of watercolor.

In week nine, Chris will show you the ease with which you can “draw” in oil paint. Chris will demonstrate his render technique with only burnt umber and gamsol. You will watch him push and pull his medium around with a paper towel while treating the thick oil paint like charcoal.