
What do hatching and cross-hatching mean?
Artists use different A way of doing something. to make drawings more interesting to look at or more When something is as close to real life as possible..
Using lines to create light and dark areas. and Using lines that cross over each other to create light and dark areas. are techniques used to create How light or dark something is.
In hatching, the lines go in one direction. In cross-hatching, the lines cross over the top of each other.
Artists often use a pencil to draw.

Watch how to bring your drawings to life
Find out how to use cross-hatching to add detail to our drawings
Joey Yu: Do you know how to make your drawings come to life and look more 3D? Let's talk about hatching and and cross-hatching.
Hatching is when you add lines to drawings to make light and dark areas. And when you cross lines over each other, it's called cross-hatching.
To give it a try, you will need: a pencil and some paper. To start, draw three apple shapes. Just a simplecircle with a little stalk on top.
Now draw some lines close together here, they don't need to be perfectly straight. It looksdarker!
Then draw lines that are further apart on the next one.
See how it looks lighter than the first? We've changed how light or dark the apple looks just by adding lines! That's calledchanging the tone.
How about hatching, this way for a different look? Now add lines that cross over our first lines - that's cross-hatching.
Remember to change direction from the first set of lines. See how different each apple looks from when I started.
Examples of hatchings creating light tones and dark tones
Image caption, Hatching
When the lines are closer together, the tone is darker.
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Activity

Did you know?
Drawing techniques such as hatching and cross-hatching can be used with different drawing materials such as:
- pencils
- pens
- ink
- pastels
- charcoal
- graphite sticks
A A sketch is a quick drawing. is a quick drawing, often done to show what something will look like before it's made with other materials.

Quiz

Glossary
Here are the meanings of some important words.
Cross-hatching - Using lines that cross over each other to create light and dark areas.
Hatching - Using lines to create light and dark areas.
Realistic - When something is as close to real life as possible.
Sketch - A quick drawing, often done to show what something will look like before it's made with other materials.
Tone - How light or dark something is.

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