How to Draw a Graduation Tassel
Commemorate your graduation by creating a beautiful pastel drawing of your tassel. You've earned that degree, so why not extend the enjoyment of your success by making something you will always remember it by? The drawing is also a great gift idea that can be matted and framed and given to someone who "helped you along the way" to achieve your goal or to another graduate.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Graduation tassel
- Gray pastel paper
- Pastels sticks, boxed set
- Drawing board
- Masking tape
- Tissue
Instructions
-
-
1
Tape the pastel paper to your drawing board, turn the board so that it is vertical and lay the tassel on the left side of the paper.
-
2
Sketch in a line drawing of the basic shape of the tassel lightly using the edge of a dark gray pastel stick. Make your drawing two times the size of the tassel. Draw in the three basic shapes of the tassel--the top knot with cord, the "mold" or middle section, and the "skirt" of the tassel. Misjudging proportions is a common mistake when drawing a tassel. Make sure the cord and skirt are long enough in relationship to the rest of the tassel.
-
-
3
Take a darker shade pastel of the color of your tassel (such as dark blue if your tassel is medium blue) and continue drawing in more detail, especially in the shadow areas. Look closely at how the tassel is constructed while you are drawing. For instance, note if the mold is surrounded with a chrome or gold metal band and how the metal has a sharper edge in contrast to the softer tassel fabric. Sketch in rough lines coming out of the ends of the mold band. Observe and draw in the lines of the knot on top and note how the cord is inserted into it as you draw.
-
4
Take a pastel stick that represents the body color (in this case medium blue) of the tassel and fill it in.
-
5
Roll up a piece of tissue into a medium thumb-shaped cone and gently smudge the medium and darker colors together to create a blended fabric look. Do not smudge the sharp metal band around the mold area yet.
-
6
Clean your hands so there is no dark pastel powder residue on them that could contaminate the lighter colors you are putting on in the next step.
-
7
Take a color that is a darker shade of the metal mold band and fill in the darker tones that you can see on it. The main point to remember when drawing metal is that light falls on it differently than fabric. Metal reflects light, whereas fabric absorbs it. Taking this into account, work to create smooth shades that follow the form of the metal and look for bright highlight areas on the metal that you will add in Step 9.
-
8
Take a lighter shade of your fabric color (such as light blue in this case) and draw in all of the light highlights. This means draw in light blue where you see the light hitting the tassel fabric lines. Do the same with the skirt and cord areas.
-
9
Finish the drawing by adding white detail highlights on the fabric and on the metal mold band. When finished with white, come in with black over the dark blue areas and add deeper shadows, being careful not to overwhelm the drawing with too much black.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
If you want to do an "actual size" or smaller drawing of your tassel, use pastel pencils instead of pastel sticks. Also use the pastel pencils for fine details on the larger drawings, such as any ornamental jewelry charm attachments like the numbers of the graduation year.
Watch out for pastel powder. Pastels are made of powdered pigments bound together with a glue binder. When using them, the powder comes off the stick and can sometimes fill the air if disturbed. To eliminate problems, periodically take the drawing outside and shake the paper to release the excess powder.
Do not spray the pastel drawing with fixatives sold by art supply stores. These are dangerous to your health and the health of others because of the fumes they emit. In addition, spray fixatives mute down the colors of the drawing. To protect the drawing, frame immediately or store in a plastic sleeve until time to frame.
