Guidelines For Pencil Portrait Drawing – Blending And The Kneaded Eraser
Once you have blocked-in the large tone masses of your portrait you are ready to blend and “take out” the lights with a kneaded eraser.
A stump is a cylindrical devise tapered at the ends and commonly made of rolled paper.
Stumping then is to smudge or blend your hatchings with a stump. The idea of stumpingis to produce gradations and halftones and to give certain tone regions a softer appearance.
Blending can be done in different ways. You can employ tissue paper or even your fingers or both. When using your fingers be sure to clean off any oily remains with a tissue.
Stumping must be done in a sculpturally manner. You should figuratively cut out the form while keeping in mind both the structural anatomy and the changes of the planes. As you draw identify each anatomical element. This is especially true when you work on intricate structures such as the nose and the eyes.
In a analogous fashion you can employ your kneaded eraser to “take out” pencil dust to lighten certainareas. Again, go about it in a sculpturally fashion. Employ the kneaded eraser as if it is a brush.
Now and again you may want to utilize the concept of “finality”. Your mind has a predispostion to fill in the holes in your observations. That is, the mind has a need for “finality”. You can make thoughtful use of this predispostion and leave certain parts of your portrait unfinished. It adds interest to your sketch as the viewer’s mind will unconsciously complete the portrait for you.
After you have done a good bit of stumping and taking out graphite with your kneaded eraser it is time to further express the forms and planes by hatching with a harder pencil (e.g., a 2H pencil). However, there are a few things to look out for at this stage.
Be careful not to leave the light side of the face too darkly or it will look like a contusion. The smile-line is also difficult. 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 important consideration must be made when drawing from a photo. A photo should only be reference material. That means artistic decisions must be made. For example:
- What sort of emotional reaction are you after? When people view your portrait what sort of first gut reaction do you want them to have to your drawing. Good skill is absolutely necessary. But it will count for little if it is frosty cold and dry.
- Make choices. You should not draw every small facet but only the important ones. Use your artistic sensibility to make these choices.
A hard 4H pencil can be used to make the already dark regions even darker with hatching.
Careful attention needs to be paid to the edges of the forms in your drawing. For instance, as a sketch turns away from the light source its value gradually 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.
Finish the drawing by paying attention to the important details. You also want to further tweak and balance the constructed values. Your drawing must always read as a unified entity even if you choose not to bring it to a complete finish.
These few simple guidelines will set you on the correct path. Apply them correctly and soon your pencil portraits will look a lot better.
Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait sketching? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing tutorial here: portrait drawing course.
Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and skilled sketching teacher. See his work at pencil portraits.
P.S. Let’s stop criticizing the video game art – better get a cheap PlayStation 3 and test it yourself.
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