Pen & Ink Drawing Tutorials | How to shade simple forms with cross-hatching 

Alphonso! Let me tell you a little story...brace yourself this is going to be AWESOME (lol nope...). I have never tried to do anything artistic. In fact I have never viewed myself as artistic or creative. In the last couple years I have been challenged by a friend to acknowledge that everyone is creative in different ways. Something about that thought (plus other life-disrupting things) has encouraged me to try new things. So here I am...at the ripe old age of 32, having never done anything artsy, attempting to learn to draw. I often have images in my head...funny interpretations of things I see or sort of shadowy scenes of something I experience that I don't have the skill (even a little) to capture on paper. And I want to. I want to be able to express myself by drawing. So with a tiny smidge of hope in my heart that I had any kind of chance to learn, I looked up "how to draw" on youtube and your videos came up. That first video I watched (7 basic lines) blew my mind (seriously..I know nothing about drawing). I ran to the store, got a sketch pad and some pencils (who knew they had a valuable purpose in this life??? Not me...til now), and here I am. Drawing lines. And boxes. And excited about it like I just drew the vertical Mona Lisa (or the pencil-sketched version of it). I have no idea if I'll get decent enough to accomplish what I want. But I'm so thankful you've shared your skill and passion for drawing with the rest of us so that I at least have the resources to learn. Bonus: your videos are organized in a very helpful way too! I just love it and I'm excited to see what I end up accomplishing. I have an art-crush on you, sir. Haha Thanks so much!

Hi there ALPHONSO DUNN I have just discovered your tutorials and I have been doing them alongside them. I am so pleased with how much you have up-skilled me. Please keep up the good work. I have got into mixed media art last year (2014) and these videos are helping me alot to work out how to draw whats in my head. It's all about cylinders, cubes, pyramids, circles, shading etc.And also the difference in solid lines and broken lines and also textures. Makes so much sense. Thank you once again.:)

First of all I acknowledge ALL the work YOU have done to get to where you are today. Secondly I really appreciate your generosity of spirit and your excellent communication skills. I have watched a few of your videos over time and you really inspire me. Thank you so much :)

I like the sound of the pen on the paper, why you muted the video? Thanks for the explanations!!!

MAN I JUST WANT TO SAY THANK YOU BROTHER!! I appreciate every last one of your videos man, you're the best bro! Huge fan of your work!

This is the best 11 minutes on drawing that I've come across. I drew along with you (pausing here and there) and I feel much better about my ability to draw. Thanks!

Thank you! I'm from Uruguay, and speak Spanish mostly, but I understand almost everything you explain. I'll begin with your tutorials for beginners. And I will write to you about my progresses. You're a generous person. Thank you, again.

I've been practicing for weeks and Im seeing some results in my drawing. thank you very much!

I like how you use curved hatch lines on the round objects that follow the contours. I never thought of that before.

Really helpful video, thanks. I like when the hatching also shows contour (goes in the direction of the plane).

Yes! Amazing video! Can you happen to maybe make a tutorial on glass surfaces with pen and ink?

You are awesome. Thank you so much for your generosity and spirit. You are a patient and skilled teacher. Thanks, again!

Really cool stuff! I am an Industrial Design Intern. Most of my product sketches involve ink pen sketching. It is fast and gets the point across. My perspective drawing skill is good and clean. However, I have always struggled with the proper technique to ink pen shading. This video finally allowed me to understand how to properly hatch in shading works for my product designs. Thank-you very much for taking the time out to post these videos.

A tip for people that feel the video goes too fast sometimes I set the youtube player to 0.25 or 0.50 depending on how much detail I want to see and to slow down the artist since for some reason a lot of them speed up the videos. Hopefully, this helps someone :) it also helped me a lot with pr.oko. and drawing database.

Excellent instruction. I completely concur with micasaverde "These are beautiful but I feel frustrated because you speeded it up just when I wanted to see exactly how to do it! I would like to watch you do just one, but slowly and explaining why you choose this or that kind of line here and there..." ////// If we can hear the REASON we will learn sooo much more. Thank you!

Amazing… i learn so much about shading… with this video… thank you so much Mr. Dunn

I'm Amazed at how you did this without turning the paper. I Just subscribed today and already learn a lot. Thank you!

your videos very very helping me thank you so much and please make videos on shading with pencil

thank you very much Alphonso!!!!! Thank-you very much for taking the time out to post these videos!! very very beautiful and useful!! Great!!

this guy is a master!

My homework is about this.. and I had a hard time doing it.. I know I can do better. I will watch tutorial lessons. Thank you!

Thanks mate! This help me a lot in my college projects; don't have many experience shading using pen.. Recommended your channel to my friends!

Alphonso - Thanks so much for sharing your skills with the rest of us. I have watched most of your videos on mountain drawing and am trying to incorporate your knowledge in my own work. Thanks, so much.

this video really help me for my project. Thanks a lot!

Just found your videos...you are awesome and I love the way you explain everything. Thank you!

I really need to thank you for your video. I am now doing my art project on drawing 3-D shapes and I'm struggling to draw them. This video really inspired me on drawing, and I hope to see more of your videos, and to improve my art. Thank you so much! 😘

Love the series

You have another subscriber AND I bought your workbook. Thank you!

You're awesome man!!

These are beautiful but I feel frustrated because you speeded it up just when I wanted to see exactly how to do it! I would like to watch you do just one, but slowly and explaining why you choose this or that kind of line here and there...

Thank you for this video, is so instructive.

...LOVE YOUR BOOKS, LIKE YOUR VOICE, GREAT INSTRUCTION, AS IN ANY SKILL--PRACTICE, PRACTICE,..

Your videos are informative and awesome as usual, Alphonso! Keep up the good work!

I subscribed before even watching the video. The thumbnail says it allll

you always explain so well ! learning something new every time I get here

Its so cool!

Thank you for sharing this.👌🎨🤗

I really like the way you're explaining ! I found out this set of videos couple of weeks ago , actually those are really good ! :) Looking forward to see more on human figure drawing !

Very clever, I'll work on this.

amazing how easy you make it look TFS

Nice way of teaching, great videos

I learn a lot from your video！Thank you

Hi, I was wondering, why is the middle part (the part where light and shadow meet) darker than the actual shadow?

Fantástico Alfonso, fantástico!

I liked your method of explanation and thanks to yours amazing video tutorials that I could render in pen easily.However when I searched on Google to find PDF ebooks for pen and ink,there aren't books for amateurs.

Hey... I understand now. This is neat!

Awesome work

I liked your woodworking.

Thank you very much :)

Thanks for sharing,it was really helpful!

Maybe explaining what you're doing (and why) would help.

thank u so much you r so great. wonderful help

love your drawings!!

find your comments really helpful and although silence allows me to concentrate I sense a missing layer of understanding... your comment

It was helpful but I had to slow down the speed significantly and stop and watch really well. I wish he had done voiceover on those parts also to know the placement of the lines in the circle and cylinder and when to switch liners. Either way it helped me get a feel for shading with ink and how to follow the planes

amazing, i was looking for this technic, thanks

Your video was a great help Thanks!

شكراً السلام اخي

Dude your amazing !! Keep it up

very helpful, thank you!!

Amazing!

Good stuff!

Thanks for the vid! You where a great help :)

On one of the videos I was asking how do you know Mr. Collins from Jago? Awesome drawing lesson as usual, I gather alot from dem.

Nice video, Thank you!

Very informative video, for beginners like me, thanks for uploading. After watching the video, the Cube seems off to me in terms of perspective on the bottom left plane, because the upper line has a steeper gradient than the bottom one. Since I always thought lines converge to vanishing points (2 point in this case), is my way of thinking right? Many thanks in advance :)

Thank you Mr :)

Wow

Genial

great vids, simple and informative. A quick tip though, I noticed in all of your vids that the camera goes out of focus many times during the video which is really annoying. just set the focus in your camera to manual, set the correct focal length manually, then we'll much enjoy what we're watching. cheerz :)

Wow micron 01... That's fine

Alphonso, I have a problem with line control, I mean. If the drawing is too big, I can't draw a straight line all the way, I tend to shake a little or to miss the spot I wanted the line to go, do you have any tips on that?

Alphonso, I am curious about the sphere that you have drawn. When I look at the other shapes, the shaow seems to stretch out behind them. With the shere, it seems to be at the side. Is there a reason for this? Thanks

How do you determine the direction of your strokes?

Thank you

Look i liked the video the only thing i didn't like was the filter and the fact that several times the image unfocuses but over that very good video

first way to use strokes is shading

Ok a bit new to this... Can this be applied with Pencil and paper too??

You and your videos are really great, really helpful! How many sides does that multi-sided form have? Is that like an 8-sided solid?

is there a technique to crosshatching because I feel like I can't do this

Alphonso, I always have trouble with drawing shadows to the shapes. I can't seem to put the right sized shadow to whatever shape I'm drawing. Please help

Hello, can you update this video in 720p ... sorry my eyes are blurry in 360p

Great vid Alphonso! Though I have question. How do I know how much light falls on a point on a form? I mean obviously the side that is away from the light source gets little to no light but what about non solid objects like drapery. Does it come with practice? I have trouble imagining 3D visions in my head without looking at a reference.

are you just using a fine liner?

I love it :))

wow youre awesome

Hi, how come the sphere goes from lighter until the darker band in the middle then back to lighter? Is the lighter shade on the right side of the dark band because of light bouncing off the table/surface or something? Thanks for the great vid

Just a thought, how do you decide what angle to do the strokes at?

Hey Alphonso I have a problem, I can definitely get a 3 dimensional look when I render my basic forms but they don't look near as nice as yours and my cross hatching looks really bad, I can't achieve anything close to realism with it, what do I do to improve that?

Do yo recommend us using multiple strokes?!

Does your book cover these basics as well?

I usually prefer not to cross hatch with lines that are at right-angles to each other... just a suggestion.

The pentagram is a pain in the(may be kids watching) to draw free hand.You know the sound cuts out at 4:48.

That moment u draw a darker version of this... /but black!/ ur not alone... or maybe am alone :(

the shapes dont have 3 point?

can this be drawn with pencil

how mute?

I can't see :(

Como saber o tamanho da sombra projetada??

is your book available in eBook?