How to Use Cross Hatching in Pen and Ink Drawings

Cross hatching is a technique used in drawing and illustrating to add details and texture to drawings. This technique is primarily used in ink drawing but can also be used in pencil. It is also a great technique to use to further embellish and watercolor drawing. Learning how to use cross hatching will help you give your illustrations a finished look. This tutorial will show you how to sue cross hatching in pen and ink drawings.

Things You'll Need

• Drawing pen
• Paper
• Ruler (optional)

Instructions

1. 

   Start with a simple line drawing that you have done. In this tutorial, we will work with a drawing of a house to demonstrate cross hatching.

2. Pick an area of the drawing where you want to add texture or shading to your drawing. In this case, we will start with the roof.

3. 

   Begin drawing light diagonal lines on the area that are close together. You can use a ruler if you are uncomfortable making freehand lines. You may want to turn your paper on an angle to make drawing the lines easier. As you can see, the lines are far from perfect, so don’t worry about making a little mistake. You can also see that the lines added a bit of texture and dimension to the roof in the drawing.

4. 

   Turn the paper in the other direction and draw lines in the opposite direction that are perpendicular to your existing lines. While the initial hatching lines added texture and dimension to the roof of the house, the cross hatching lines made the roof more solid and realistic looking.

5. 

   Add shadows to your cross hatched area by drawing short horizontal ones over the cross hatched lines where you want to create shadow or shading. You will see these lines on the left side of the roof.

6. Add other illustration techniques to your pen and ink drawing such as cross hatching lines, stippling and loose cross hatching lines to bring the image to life.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a piece of paper under your hand to protect the drawing from oils that will smear the ink.