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Once you have blocked-in the primary value masses of your portrait it is time to blend and "take out" the lights with a putty eraser. A stump is a cylindrical tool tapered at the ends and generally made of rolled paper. Stumping then is to smudge or blend your hatchings with a stump. The goal of blendingis to produce gradations and halftones and to give particular value regions a softer look. Blending can be accomplished in different ways. You can employ tissue paper or even your fingers or both. When utilizing your fingers be sure to clean off any oily deposits with a tissue. Stumping must be done in a sculpturally manner. You should literally fashion out the form while invoking both the structural anatomy and the plane changes. As you sketch name each anatomical feature. This is in particular advisable when you work on intricate structures such as the nose and the eyes. In a analogous manner you can employ your kneaded eraser to "take out" pencil dust to lighten particularareas. Again, go about it in a sculpturally way. Utilize the putty eraser as if it is a brush. Now and then you may want to employ the concept of "closure". Your mind has a propensity to fill in the holes in your observations. That is, the mind has a need for "closure". You can make thoughtful use of this propensity and leave particular parts of your portrait uncompleted. It adds interest to your sketch as the viewer's mind will involuntarily finish the portrait for you. After you have done a good bit of blending and removing graphite with your putty eraser it is time to further articulate the shapes and planes by cross-hatching with a harder pencil (e.g., a 2H pencil). But, there are a few things to look out for at this time. Be careful not to render the light side of the face too darkly or it will look like a bruise. The smile-line is also problematic. If you over-emphasize it you will end up with a scoff. It is best to under-emphasize it and let the viewer's sense of finalitiy finalize it for you. An critical consideration must be made when sketching from a photograph. A photograph should only be suggestive material. That means visual decisions must be made. For example: - What sort of emotional response are you after? When people see your portrait what sort of first gut response do you want them to have to your drawing. Good skill is absolutely necessary. But it will count for very little if it is frosty cold and dry. - Make choices. You should not draw every tiny detail but only the critical ones. Use your artistic sensibility to make these choices. A hard 4H pencil can be used to make the already dark regions even darker through cross-hatching. Careful attention needs to be paid to the edges of the shapes in your drawing. For instance, as a form turns away from the light source its tone progressively gets darker and takes on a soft edge. A cast shadow has a hard edge. The form of a cast shadow is determined by the form of the object throwing the shadow and the form upon which it is being thrown. End the drawing by paying attention to the critical details. You also want to further tweak and stabilize the constructed tones. Your drawing must always read as a unified whole even if you choose not to bring it to a complete finish. These few simple tips will set you on the right path. Apply them correctly and soon your pencil portraits will look a lot better.
Article Source: http://www.new.citynewslive.com
Download my brand new no cost pencil portrait draw tutorial here: www.remipencilportraits.com/PPDT/pencil-portrait-tutorial.html target="_blank">Pencil Portrait Drawing Course. Remi Engels is a practicing pencil portrait draftsman and oil painter and expert sketching teacher. See his work at Pencil Portraits by Remi: www.remipencilportraits.com Visit Guidelines for Pencil Portrait Drawing - Blending and the Kneaded Eraser.
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