What do I need to start sketching?

[Mike73]

Its a bit strange because I have no interest in AP at all (been a keen photographer over the last 15 years both digitally and in trad darkroom) but instead my two favourite parts of the forum are the Observing and Sketches.

Really impressed with the sketches I've seen here

So just what pencils do I need to sketch my observation and where do you get yours (online?)

Anyone have any tips they can share?

Thanks

Mike

[paul mc c]

A pencil, piece of paper and a red torch is all i use,roughly sketching what i see at the eyepiece,noteing any particular features and making a final sketch when i finish observing when the image is fresh in my mind.

[DarkerSky]

Mike. I'm much like you. A keen photographer but with no interest in AP. I'm no artist either, but I took up sketching what I see in the eyepiece early on and now I often observe just to sketch.

I use printed circle templates for DSOs and Society of Popular Astronomy templates for the planets. I have a set of graphite pencils 6B to 4H from a high street retailer, as well as some colour pencils going through tones of yellow and brown from an arts & crafts shop.

Then all I do is spend time observing and wait for some decent seeing. The more I look the more I tend to see, and then get it down in a sketch.

To get a softness in light and dark tones as they merge, I just use my fingers to smudge the graphite around a bit. Some people use blending stumps to get similar effects.

Hope that helps.

[iwatkins]

I do do AP, even though I declared last year that I had given up.

Even so, I also sketch, mainly with B pencils and a few H's for outlines.

Main thing to remember. AP captures lots of subs, or webcams get thousands of frames. Just using a telescope and an eyepiece, you can do the same, well, your brain can, even if slightly out of focus.

Draw what you see and you will not go far wrong.

I don't share my sketches online, because I'm not very good. But it gives me more satisfaction than imaging, bagging another Messier, getting the perfect stacked image or recording sunspots. I do show the wife, and she says they are great. That's enough for me

Cheers

Ian

[Grunthos]

I just bought a book on Astronomical sketching from Amazon.

Found it to be very useful and full of tips and hints (no substitute for experience I suspect!).

[todd8137]

Hi and to get started pencils and a decent sketch pad,draw what you see, and not what you want others to see.i love to draw and have a few on here some where .take ya time drawings does make you look harder try to avoid touch in the pictures up in the hous.you will add detail you think it needs .and then the pics start to look that way

but do have a go its great

that book looks a waste of time save the cash for some good pencils and sketch pad

[Mike73]

Brilliant! Some good advice there and its appreciated.

Just ordered this http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003DQLFPW/ref=ox_ya_os_product to get me started.

If only Amazon would sell cloud a cloud eraser aswell...

[RikM]

If only Amazon would sell cloud a cloud eraser aswell...

I'd be in the market for one of those

I use a range of graphite pencils: 2H, HB, 2B, 6B and few colours for planets. I'm currently using Faber-Castell, but Rexel Cumberland are good too. I use a paper blending stump for smoothing things out and for applying faint parts to nebs and galaxies.

I use smooth surface cartridge paper, but am looking for something better and it still comes out a bit rough when I scan the sketches in. I invert them and then go over the stars using a small feathered brush tool in Photoshop. I can also adjust the contrast and brightness of the sketch to get it just how I want.

I am not much of an artist, but I do also paint a bit in watercolour and oils. Landscapes rather than astro.

This is a great web site with loads of good info about sketching and digitising sketches.

Astronomical Sketching Resources - Belt of Venus

I do astrophotography as well, but you can't beat time at the eyepiece with paper and pencil to de-stress after a horrid day. It also trains your eye because you have to really spend the time to 'see'. I believe it makes you a better observer.

[Venus_is_my_friend]

I use a spiral bound A5 sketch book, engineers pencils (one with 2B sticks in it and one with HB) this way you don't have to worry about sharpening pencils, A blending stump and I use one of those clear fake CD's you get when you buy a stack of blank CD's to draw round for the eyepiece FOV.

Also I bought a head lamp torch that has a red LED in it.