Use Stippling As A Shading Alternative

Stippling is the process of using dots and very small dashes to create a drawing.

The use of different sized dots and the way they are spaced gives differing effects. For example, you can add a gray tone to your drawing just by the way you space the dots.

These dots suggest form, shape, depth and contrast.

They also convey light and shadow.

It's a great idea to use the stipple process with fine line drawings. They go together very nicely.

On this drawing of weeds, I dotted my pencil around the stalks.

I was very pleased with the resulting picture.

The ground consists of dots and short dashes as well.

If you combine the dots with lines of all different lengths and thickness, you would get perfect hair on an animal drawing.

To do a whole stippled drawing would be very time consuming and requires a lot of patience.

If I was going to do one, I think I'd use pen and ink. This is the more favored medium used by experienced artists.

As with any drawing, you can use various types of leads to give different effects. A H lead would show a light gray and B pencils give a nice dark tone. The more pressure you apply, the darker it is.

You can create dark tones just by increasing the amount of dots in one area.

Alternately, you create light tones by spreading them out.

This would be another method of shading that you can use.

You can even map out your next drawing by using a series of dots, instead of drawing faint lines.

When you use this different technique along with hatching and scribbling, you will create a drawing that contains all the different shading patterns. Include the various hatching styles - cross, random and curved hatch as well. Drawing can only get more exciting when you start using a different approach.

You could finish up with some very interesting artwork.

If you love drawing portraits, give this technique a go.

I drew these lips and stippled in the shadow.

Go on an adventure and experiment with how you can use this to your advantage.

Discovery is half the fun in drawing.

Depending on the subject I was drawing, I found it was a lot simpler in some cases to dot the outline. The dots were easy to draw over and I didn't have to worry about erasing them later.

This is my least favorite drawing on this page.

When I get more experienced, I'm sure I can finish the drawing in a better fashion.

If you use stippling, then you have added a whole new dimension to your drawings. Congratulations!

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