✏️ HATCHING & TEXTURE
✏️ YOUR SKETCH KIT
This lesson teaches cross-hatching and surface texture. You will build dark areas with layered lines and draw three swatches: smooth metal, rough wood, and fuzzy fabric.
- ✏️ Graphite pencils: HB for light hatching, 2B and 4B for deep layers
- 📄 Sketch paper: room for three texture swatches side by side
- 📐 Ruler (optional): keep first hatch direction tidy
- 🔍 Reference scraps: foil, bark photo, or a fuzzy sock to compare
- 🧽 Kneaded eraser: lift highlights on metal swatches
Time: about 10 minutes · Build tone with lines, not smudges · Three texture swatches at the end
PAGE 1 OF 5, PARALLEL HATCHING BASICS
LINES AS TONE
PARALLEL HATCHING
Parallel hatching means drawing rows of lines that run the same direction, like ruled notebook lines. Space them wide apart for a light value. Pack them closer for a darker value. Keep your wrist loose and let the pencil tip glide instead of digging trenches. Hatch follows the form: lines on a round apple curve with the surface, not always straight across the page. This method builds tone without smearing graphite into a gray cloud. You stay in control of every mark.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
Comic book inkers use hatching to show shadow on black-and-white pages. Your pencil hatching works the same way, just softer.
LINES!
LIGHT
📏 Wide gaps between lines.
✨ Paper shows through.
✨ Paper shows through.
DARKER
✏️ Lines closer together.
🌗 Value grows step by step.
🌗 Value grows step by step.