Today I didn't so much sketch as work on a new technique that I learned in one of the library books I borrowed: Drawing Realistic Textures in Pencil, by J.D. Hillberry.
I only had 30 min and you wouldn't believe how little gets done in that amount of time! I wanted to try the multiple blending technique he uses to create texture. First of all, he combines things in ways I hadn't heard of or considered. For example, he will darken an area with charcoal and then blend graphite over top. At first I thought - why? But I tried it and it does create a neat effect. Mostly the graphite fills in all the gaps left by the charcoal pencil and seems to seal the charcoal to the paper a little better.
I'm sure there are other ways he could've gone about filling these gaps. I know you can use charcoal/graphite dust and apply with a paint brush for example. I also wonder if it would look any different to apply the graphite first and then the charcoal?
The other thing I wanted to try out were his blending techniques. He doesn't just use a stump/tortillon or paint brush, he also uses felt, chamois, facial tissue and paper depending on the effect he's going for. And he will combine blenders for different textures (i.e. felt and chamois).
I don't have a picture of my work this time - it wasn't really anything to see anyway, just some black/grey rectangles, but I really enjoyed playing with his concepts. I want to work some more with his techniques because I think they might be time savers! Anything that will reduce the amount of time it takes to create a realistic image is definitely worth knowing more about!!!
Oh, and I did some research on my calligraphy pen from my last post. Turns out it isn't a dip pen (glad I looked into that) and is meant to be used with ink cartridges (not refillable unfortunately). I found out I can get the cartridges from Amazon.ca for $5/pkg of 4/5 which isn't too bad a price considering. I will wait until my next book order though so I can make use of the free shipping :)
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