Interesting Art Technique Installment 1

One of the more interesting techniques that I was exposed to in highschool art was stippling. Stippling is the proccess of creating a picture and shading it using dots. You often start the proccess by finding the picture that you will be using as the subject. If the picture is in color, it is often very helpful to photocopy it in black and white. Next, you draw a grid, often 1x1 inches, onto the photocopy. Then you create another 1x1 inch grid or even a 2x2 inch grid onto a piece of nice paper. You then draw the outline and help lines of the picture onto the nice paper so that the grids match. Once you have transfered the image, you can start stippling. The whole point of stippling is to not make any lines or long marks. Only dots are used to create the outline and shading of the image. You insinuate darker areas with dots closer together and light areas with maybe no dots at all. once you are satisfied with the image you can erase out the pencil grid and enjoy you completed piece of art.

What You Need:
a picture with interesting subject and shading
pencil
straightedge
nice light colored paper
fine point sharpie

finished product:


So yeah, I think everyone should try stippling out! It is a really cool techinique and creates interesting unique pieces.