How to Draw With Stippling: Shade a Sphere With Dots

Difficulty: Easy
About 1 hour 30 minutes
9 steps

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Stippling is drawing with dots. That is the whole trick. Put dots close together and an area reads as dark. Spread them out and it reads as light. This tutorial follows Ms. Cooper's Art Class on YouTube, where she warms up with a dotted value scale and then shades a round sphere with a fine black pen. It is slow, calm work, and the results look far more polished than the method suggests.

How to draw with stippling: the short version

Practice a value scale first, light dots on one end and packed dots on the other.
Draw a light pencil outline and mark where the light comes from.
Lay a thin, even base layer of dots over the whole shape.
Place the darkest dots opposite the light, then work outward into the lights.
Smooth the gradient with tiny, light taps of the pen.

What you need

A fine archival pen does most of the work. Ms. Cooper uses a Micron 05, which makes a clean, round dot. Smaller sizes like 01 and 005 make finer dots and smoother shading, but take longer. Pick smooth paper, such as Bristol or a heavy drawing paper. Rough paper drags the pen and the dots come out ragged. Keep a pencil and a kneaded eraser for the outline.

Dots, not dashes

Hold the pen straight up and down and tap it. Lift fully between dots. If the pen drags even a little, you get commas and tick marks instead of dots, and the shading looks hairy. Those marks can look interesting, but they are a different technique. Small circles are not stippling either. Real dots leave tiny gaps of white paper, and that is what makes the drawing look neat.

Why work from dark to light

You can always add dots. You cannot take them away. Building the darkest area first and easing outward keeps you from going too dark too fast in the middle tones. It also helps you avoid clumps. A clump in a light area is hard to hide. Hiding one means darkening everything around it.

How long does it take?

Longer than you think. The sphere in the video took Ms. Cooper a little under an hour and a half, with the footage sped up. Plan short sessions. Stippling is a good thing to do in front of a show or with music on, a few minutes at a time.

Where stippling shines

Dots suit soft, rounded subjects: fruit, stones, shells, feathers and faces. They also print well, which is why the look shows up in old book plates and botanical art.

Common problems

Patchy shading. Look for odd white gaps and drop single dots into the middle of each one.
Visible rows or a grid. Place dots by eye, in the spaces between other dots, never in lines.
Too dark too soon. Stop and squint. Lighten the rest of the drawing with more dots instead of fighting the dark spot.
Ink smudges. Rest your hand on a scrap of paper while you work.

Where to go next

Stippling pairs well with any shading lesson. Brush up on light and shadow in how to shade, then try dots on a real subject like a leaf or a nose. New to drawing? Start with the basics in how to draw.

Quick answer

Learn how to draw with stippling: build a dotted value scale, then shade a sphere from dark to light with a fine pen. An easy project: about 1 hour 30 minutes. You need 6 things, including smooth Bristol or drawing paper, Micron 05 pen and finer Micron pens. The 9 steps start with start a Stippling Value Scale With Light Dots, pack Dense Dots Into the Dark End of the Value Scale and know What Stippling Is Not.

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