Can you draw your ideas without erasing?

[CCThrom]

The eraser is your FRIEND... not just for sketching (yeah, I sketch kinda heavy so I erase a lot) but also for finished artwork... you can use it as another drawing tool, so there's subtractive as well as additive marks in your pencil pieces.

[Motility]

I almost never erase - i just turn the wonky lines into scars and shit

Heh, Heh. Ha ha. HA HA. HA HA HA HAHAHAHHHAHAHHAHHAHHAHA!! Yeah!

I don’t know if it’s the same issue – or similar anyway - but I’ve found that if I use really good quality paper, or if a sketch is coming out very nicely, I become too careful and conservative. Slowing down and calculating every move. Which stifles me and pretty much stops the whole process leaving me with half a good work.
If, however, I use a lump of paper which I don’t really care an awful lot about, and start a (practice) sketch which I can just dump afterwards, instead of perfecting and cherishing forever… then I can loosen up and do some nice stuff. And then that leaves me with a whole half good work.

It’s the same with my women, really. [If I use a lump which I don’t really care an awful lot about, and which I can just dump afterwards, instead of cherishing forever… then I can loosen up and do some… stuff.] Sorry ladies - humor.

I just now I realized that my sketchbook costs all of three dollars – and there were like - fifty of them on the shelf at the store!.. The stuff grows on trees!
Truly it depends on the idea. If a sketch is to remind me of an idea to draw, paint, sculpt, or build, then it can be sloppy. If it is to present as an idea to some one else.. different story.
Also, highlighting by erasing is a new favorite technique I’m trying.

[|NTeRN]

When you sketch ideas, do you erase alot or is your hand eye mind whatever coordination capable of putting down the line right away with the results you want?

I find its easier to do character drawings then perspective drawings though.

dude you know well enough from watts that your eraser is just as much as a drawing tool (if not more so) then your pencil

[NoSeRider]

Charcoal Pencil drawings are a different matter. I'm taking about sketchbooks and doodles.....ideas.

[|NTeRN]

true, but i still use it the same way, i say its about 50/50 correction drawing tool.

[Steph Laberis]

Constantly.

You forget that erasers are used for highlights and detailing, not just fixing mistakes.

[Elwell]

I erase more than I draw. By the time I'm finished, there's nothing left!

[N D Hill]

Drawing is also being able to subtract. Not just add. I always keep a kneaded eraser as well as "Tuff Stuff Eraser Sticks" handy. Eraser sticks are great for subtle highlights and finer work.

[Steph Laberis]

Exo: Those things are AMAZING! I keep 3 of those on me - one for my pencil case, one for the studio and one for my car... cuz I lose things in my pencil case all the time.

[|NTeRN]

I erase more than I draw. By the time I'm finished, there's nothing left!

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! oh man that made me giggle

[vigostar]

I NEVER erase.. I cant.....

[loomer]

I don't always erase...obviously when drawing in pen. But even if I'm using graphite and I'm doing studies from life I sometimes don't need to even take my eraser out of my bag. When capturing things from life, you kind of want all the time making marks..not removing them. it's also important to make confident decisions...which will lead to confident marks.
All that said...If I need to ...hells yes...erase I will!

[asoir]

Not really....keep in mind this is the 'Lounge'. IE: Lounge you don't take seriously.

I was just hoping for some kinda artistic insight. Some sort of phenomenal formula.

Understood, the replies coming out of this are quite interesting, nice thread in the end

[Carnifex]

I always keep a kneaded eraser

does someone know how to prevent those from sticking to all other tools in your pencil case?

[DavePalumbo]

for a while I had one of those plastic envelopes that Faber-Castell packs their four pen sets in. I repacked with one mechanical pencil, one brush pen, one line pen, and one kneaded eraser rolled into the shape of a pen. Worked well, didn't get too sticky.

[Ian Mack]

my two cents....


I would say that I am getting better at sketching without erasing. The reason I saw I'm getting better is because that means I am choosing the right lines on the first stroke. I don't think it's a matter of drawing what your mind sees so muich as your mind seeing the right line in the first place. I'm an animation student so I place more value on getting the line right than on using various eraser techniques. Artistic license means you don't have to draw 'exactly' what you see in front of you and if You can make a better line than reality without having to draw it five times...well then you are going to make alot more effective pieces than someone who can't.

As such...this comes from alot of practice. Just like getting better with using erasers!

[NoSeRider]

Here's a little art dump. These are all 3 hour workshops done on
17x12 Copy Paper using Grey Cool Prisma Color and Black Ball Point Pen.
And a white out pen.....a little bit.

I obsess about this shit. I can't help it.

[worxe]

What Fellah said, I rarely erase, if at all, when sketching (sketching - as others have pointed out, if im after a rendered look the eraser is needed for highlights), I feel that it helps justify some different/interesting or strange surface texture to work on after drawing over it repeatedly and the 'wonky lines' can add alot of character than to erase it into some stagnate topography on the page that you have to sit and stare at and think of something else that feels believable, but the use of an eraser differs greatly with everyone as proven in this thread.

In reference to above, I really like the last 3 over the first 3 since you've kept some of the lines in the faces, I think that you can still read the forms you are conveying but its more interesting to look at than another plain-drawn face.

[Mr Man]

Each time you put eraser to paper a kitten dies

[Crash]

You use an eraser?


LOLOL FUCKING LOOSER MWAHAHAHHA...


seriously, relax.

[Crane]

I haven't used an eraser for about 4 years now, just masking tape to fix my ballpoints because i like chewing them

[Stahr]

I use my hyper-sci-fi eraser
kidding, but it's an ereaser with a small engine making the ereaser tip rotate, really unexpensive about 4E, even bought some more.. just for having at home if one starts to malfunction heh.
for highlights, this is just awesome.
And you get your fellow artists staring at you for using that little mechanical thing, or people looking around to find what that buzzing sound comes from.
if anybody want to see how it looks maybe i can take a photo of it, haven't found any images on the net of it.

but i try to stay away from the ereaser when sketching, just if i make a really big mistake i might consider ereasing it.
and don't erease your happy mistakes

[Seedling]

NoSeRider, you’re a dirty necro-poster, lolz!

I’ve been going on weekly sketch outings with Turbine’s concept artists. Ball-point-pens have dominated the table at these.

Personally, I love pen for sketching because it ensures that I keep making forward progress. Most of my Perspective 101 examples were done in entirely pen. But after a certain point it’s impractical. After throwing away several perspective studies in one evening I finally reached for a pencil. Any project that requires more development, such as the final under-drawing of a painting, I’ve got to do in pencil so that I’m not trapped by mistakes.

[JL.Alfaro]

no

-JL

[Costau D]

Kill as many trees as you can. Ofcourse try and finish a peice you really like. It's hard to find that middle ground of how long it takes you to perfect something, and when you should start all over again. So in short, stop worrying so much.

[Rich Pellegrino]

if you have to erase you must not be a good artist.

kidding!

if you not erasing you aren't exploring all the possibilities. when exploring for for ideas i erase randomly to "get a new perspective" There are plenty of ways to use erasing besides deleting mistakes. try it out!

[Vhan Juju]

My eraser works like a WMD, First I notice something is toatally out of-whack, then I crawl around my room looking for it, then I take it to my paper, and compleatley obliverate anything I don't like, then I loose it again untill next time.

unless It calls for a eraser, I just draw more lines over my bad ones untill it looks right, and leave the editing out untill I'm done inking it. yea, maybe not the best process, but at my level it works for me.

Plus, I'm known to use the eraser to texture up my flat-grayscale areas of my drawings, it looks cheesy if I over-do-it so I gotta be carefull!

Ps. I love my ink pen!!!!

[Dile_]

I use eraser for the big mistakes... mostly in the early process of putting the "big" stuff down.. shapes..

[Wulfsbane]

Yes, I certainly do.

At least when I use a pencil to sketch which is kinda rare for me since I normally prefer to use a pen nowadays. I'm not fond of the residue that litters about after erasing, so I tend to avoid using it unless I really want to (thank God for kneadable erasers).

If I do make a mistake (which I always do) I just abandon the doodle or whatever and restart elsewhere. But that wouldn't be the case if I'm so close to attaining that right look for my idea that was made on the first try. If all I need to do to perfect that is to erase then so be it.