Sky & Telescope - June 2022 - 60

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Sketching Primer
* With your finger (I suggest the little finger of your drawing
hand), softly rub the patch in a circular motion until it's
mostly, but not perfectly, smooth.
* Erase the bits that look out of place, add pencil lead where
it looks like more is needed, and smudge more with your
finger. Repeat as needed.
* Once you're happy with your smudge, use the tip of the
pencil to add a small, dark dot as close to the center of the
smudge as you can.
Congratulations, you've just sketched your first elliptical
galaxy! Stretch it out and you've got an edge-on galaxy or
add wings to make a spiral galaxy. Master these six steps, and
you're on your way to sketching almost everything you can
see through your telescope.
When I'm at the eyepiece I keep it simple by using only a
sketching notebook or clipboard and a mechanical pencil with
a good eraser. My notebook opens up to 11 inches by 8.5 inches
- easy to hold in one hand with a pencil in the other. There's
nothing special about either item, but I like using 0.7-mm HB
lead in the pencil. Yeah, the initials are fun, but I chose it
because it's a medium-density graphite that's easy to control.
For the most part, once I've made my sketch, I'll stop
there. But for my favorite objects I'll make a finished drawing,
and sometimes I'll go one step further and make that into a
digital rendering. Digital renderings, made with an image-processing
program on my computer, are closest to showing what
I actually saw in the eyepiece. More on this later.
Perhaps you've seen observing-report templates that include
sketching circles. They're a great way to get started, and many
people use them. However, their drawback is that they determine
the scale of your sketch - everything from the Crab
Nebula (small) to the Andromeda Galaxy (very large) has to
be scaled to fit within the same size circle. Most things will,
but not the biggest and often most interesting objects.
Sketching Large and Complex Objects
Drawing big targets takes some upfront planning to set the
scale because the drawing has to be large enough to properly show
uDRAW AND SMUDGE Note how
I hold the pencil nearly horizontal
to the paper, and how I move it
back and forth instead of round and
round (second photo). As best you
can, draw all the pencil marks in the
same direction as shown. As the
circular area becomes more consistently
dark, start making the central
third even darker. Do your best but
don't try to be perfect - think of
this as a practice doodle where
imperfections are okay. Notice how
rough the sketch in the second
photo looks. When you get to this
point, gently smudge it with a finger
to blend the pencil lines together.
60 JUNE 2022 * SKY & TELESCOPE
Glossary
Sketching: A quickly made drawing meant to capture
the essence of an object.
Drawing: A finished version of a sketch meant to
show more accurately what the object looked like.
Rendering: An image meant to be as realistic as
possible.
Smudging: Smearing pencil lead on paper with a
smudging post or finger.
Cleaning bag: A small cloth bag filled with eraser
shavings; used for lightly erasing large areas.
Eraser pencil: A long eraser in a plastic holder. The
tip can be cut to a sharp point for erasing thin lines.
Tracing paper: Very thin and nearly transparent
paper. It also has a fine texture and is
excellent for smudging.
Vellum: A thicker, higher-quality
relative of tracing paper.
Best saved for making a
finished drawing.
the smallest details. That's an important tip I learned the hard
way, so let's make this the third thing to remember. When I
sketched the Orion Nebula for the first time, I spent most of a
rare clear winter night making a rough, freehand sketch in my
notebook. But I was really frustrated with the result.
What went wrong? First, M42 is way too complex for me
to render freehand. Spreading the sketch over two pages was
a terrible idea - and the scale was way off. The Trapezium
area ended up too small to show anywhere near all the detail
I could see. Plus, the overall proportions were skewed, and I
was irritated that two hours of effort didn't turn out better. It
did get me thinking, though. I needed a template.
A single template for everything would be way too large to
use at the eyepiece of my scope, so I made the project easier by
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Sky & Telescope - June 2022

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