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Here's a very simple illustration, showing the fundamental way of rendering in pencil. The "slinky" stroke is a unique way to describe a certain kind of pencil stroke. Ryder calls it a "slinky" because it goes back and forth, back and forth, just like that childhood toy, the Slinky.
This is the basis for much of the rendering and shading in pencil and pen. It's as simple as that! If you are unfamiliar with drawing with this stroke, practice it in your sketchbook. It's fun!
Here's an illustration showing the "crosshatching" of a pencil stroke. It's very simple principle—you just do the "slinky" thing in several different directions, one over the other! (I have put arrows over the different directions of my pencil strokes.) Each different direction adds more tone to the shading, and gets it progressively darker, and darker.
Some more examples of pencil strokes. The example on the left shows how a dark tone looks. One bears down a little harder with their pencil, and gets the darkest tone they can while using the "slinky" stroke. They do this going several different directions. Voilà! A very dark (even black) tone.
The example on the right is a more strict crosshatch. It isn't so much of a "slinky" stroke (one lifts the pencil up after making each line) but the same principle applies.
Here are a few more pencil techniques. The illustration on the left shows a "slinky" stroke that tapers down to a tip. This can be useful in many shading areas.
The illustration on the right shows a "squiggle" stroke. This is sometimes good for delicate shading in small areas, or drawing fabric, or a few other "specialized" textures.
A note about "smearing" (or "blending") graphite:
This has been a popular technique for ages, especially for "newbies." I did it myself for a while, when I first started out. It's done well only occasionally. Usually it just looks smeary, messy, and over-rendered. It can be difficult (especially for newbies) to get the graphite blended properly. Graphite is too much of "lightweight" medium to take smearing well. A richer, more intense medium should be used for such a blending technique, like charcoal or pastel.
I've seen too much smeared graphite artwork that screams "newbie." I believe this is why many of my art teachers wouldn't allow students to smear their pencil strokes. Even when an artist managed to get the graphite blended smoothly enough, sometimes the portrait lacked depth, and looked a little cold and flat.
I'm not going to say thatevery example of smeared graphite artwork I've seen has had a problem, (there are some notable exceptions, usually among more experienced artists). But the technique too often has an awkward, over-rendered "newbie" look to it.
In my tutorials, I sometimes work with a a modified, carefully-rendered crosshatch stroke. When used on a smooth paper surface with small, delicate strokes, the effect is a smoothly rendered (but not messy) portrait with a lot of depth and detail.
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