Smudging with a Brush and Deepening the Dark Tones:
- Begin by lying some extra tone over the darkest regions of the drawing – using compressed charcoal.
- Make sure that you add enough charcoal that there is some excess dust.
- Then you can use your largest brush to sweep back and forth and up and down all over the drawing. This will remove some detail but leave a nice smooth base layer for our subsequent detail.
- Make sure that the dark tones are really pressed into the darkest region so that you get some nice rich shadows.
- Once everything has been smudged you can use the kneadable eraser rolled to a point to neaten up any areas that need to be lighter and sharper.
- You can also use some sharpened willow charcoal and to redefine any shapes that have been lost.
- Carry on in this fashion – using the willow and compressed charcoals (depending on the value of the tone) to develop the forms.
Course Materials:
- Paper
- Compressed charcoal
- Vine charcoal
- Charcoal powder
- Graphite pencils (from 2B – HB)
- White Gouache or Acrylic paint
- Various brushes (whatever you have lying around)
- Drawing Board
- Tape
