You only need a pencil and paper. Do the exercise as in the video.
Pencil Practice: hand position and shading strokes
Anna Kara shows the first exercise for a future PMU artist, done with a pencil on paper: how to place the hand and hold the pencil or machine, the linear stroke, three shading strokes (towards you, away from you and the pendulum), how to merge two blocks of shading by overlapping them about 70 to 80%, and what a bad, uneven example looks like.
What you will learn
- Hand position: pressure goes into the elbow and the little finger, pencil or machine held with the index finger, middle finger and thumb at 90 degrees to the paper
- The linear stroke: go slowly and come back about 80% on each stroke, until you can draw a straight line
- Shading towards you, away from you and with the pendulum movement, the one most used in PMU
- Merging blocks by overlapping them 70 to 80%, and layering 100% then 70% for the gradient you want
- The homework: repeat the exercise on paper, as close to the video as you can
Read the full transcript
Let us start our practice and the understanding of hand placement. Our pressure goes into the elbow as well as the pinky. We hold the pencil or the machine with the index finger, the middle finger and the thumb. Our machine or pencil is always at a 90 degree angle to the paper. We start with the linear stroke.
We always take our time, and we always go back about 80% on each stroke. We typically use this stroke for linear hairstrokes or linear shading. There are different types of strokes, but this is the main one, and we practice it until we can draw a perfectly straight line.
Then we move forward to the shading strokes. The first one is towards us, meaning that our pencil or machine only works towards us, and we work on getting the shading all merged together without any different darkness. The next one is working away from us.
The most used shading technique is the pendulum. We will try all of the different shading techniques to find the perfect one for you, and the pendulum is the one most used in PMU work. Once again, we work on having it all even.
Now we work on connecting and moving forward, as if we were shading a brow, a lip or anything else we might work on, so that we can merge two blocks together in an even way. We continue to merge the blocks that we shade, overlapping them by about 70 to 80%. Here we have made two blocks. Depending on the technique we are using, we might use 100% on the first layer and then 70% layering, 70% layering, depending on what type of gradient we would like.
For your homework you will work on linear strokes as well as shading strokes. Fill a full page or two of paper with pencil shading. As in the example video, layer three blocks on each other until you reach a result that is satisfactory to you.
This is an example of how we do not want it to look. The blocks are not merged together, the lines are not flowing, and you would not be able to achieve an even gradient.
Edited for filler words and speech-recognition errors. Brand names and a few passages are shortened.
Your first assignment
- Take a pencil and a few sheets of paper.
- Repeat on paper exactly what you see in the video, as close as you can: the linear strokes, then the shading blocks, layered and merged by 70 to 80%. Fill a page or two.
- Take a clear photo of your sheet in good light.
- Email the photo to anna@pmu-annakara.com.
In the email, please write your name and the city you are writing from. We are glad to see your work.
