Once you have hatched the primary value masses of your portrait it is time to stump and "take out" the lights with a kneaded eraser.
A stump is a cylindrical tool tapered at the ends and commonly made of rolled paper.
Stumping then is to smear or blend your hatchings with a stump. The idea of stumpingis to produce gradations and halftones and to give certain value regions a softer appearance.
Blending can be done in different ways. You can use tissue paper or even your fingers or both. When using your fingers be sure to wipe off any oily deposits with a tissue.
Blending must be done in a painterly manner. You should figuratively cut out the form while keeping in mind both the structural anatomy and the plane changes. As you sketch name each anatomical element. This is in particular true when you work on complex structures such as the nose and the eyes.
In a analogous manner you can use your kneaded eraser to "take out" graphite to lighten certainareas. Again, go about it in a painterly way. Employ the kneaded eraser as if it is a brush.
Now and again you may want to make use of the concept of "closure". Your mind has a tendency to fill in the holes in your observations. That is, the mind has a need for "closure". You can make judicious use of this tendency and leave certain parts of your portrait uncompleted. It adds interest to your sketch as the viewer's mind will involuntarily 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 articulate the shapes 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 time.
Care must be taken not to make 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 sneer. 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 paper picture. A paper picture should only be suggestive material. That means artistic decisions must be made. For example:
- What kind of emotional response are you after? When people see your portrait what kind of initial visceral response do you want them to have to your drawing. Good skill is certainly necessary. But it will count for very little if it is frosty cold and dry.
- Make choices. You should not draw every little detail but only the important ones. Use your artistic judgement to make these choices.
A hard 4H pencil can be used to make the already dark regions even darker through 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 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 casting the shadow and the form upon which it is being cast.
Finish the drawing by paying attention to the important details. You also want to further tweak and balance the constructed tones. Your drawing must always read as a cohesive entity even though you decide not to bring it to a complete finish.
These few simple guidelines will set you on the accurate path. Apply them appropriately and soon your pencil portraits will look a lot better.
In this expose we discuss several blending procedures that allow you to construct a interconnected tonal matrix for your pencil portrait sketch.
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Roberto Garabell
