Hi everybody; Marisol here. I’m sick today, so I didn’t prepare a real tutorial. I haven’t posted in a while because I bought a Nintendo DS (yay!) with my tax return, and I’ve been sick. I think I have a cold or the flu, but I rebound quickly. Let me update you on a few things, though.

This has been quite the interesting week for Alex and me. Monday, our linguistics class was cancelled, so we went and sold some movies and got a Super Nintendo! Yay! Too bad there was no AV plug.

Finally, today, Alex and I were about to get attacked by some angry guy in a purple Ford Ranger. It was my and Alex’s turn at the stop sign, so it was our turn to go. Well, Mr. Purple Truck decided to pull out in front of us as we were going through the stop sign. He honked at us even though it wasn’t his turn to go; Alex honked at him. The guy in the purple truck pulled over, swung his door open, and was rushing up to our car ready to fight! Alex drove off and we thought the guy was gunna follow us to fight! People… sheesh! Crazy, crazy people.

Okay, so our week wasn’t that eventful. Oh well. Good stuff, anyway. Tala should tell you guys about HER week!

Okay, so someone recently asked me about shading techniques and how to not make drawings seem so sketchy. Well, I have some tips to offer. Ready to begin? Awesome!

Blending without Utensils

How does one eliminate the sketchy look without using tortillions are tissue? Simple! Color your image using very small strokes. This technique may take longer, but it’s great if you don’t have the other immenities available. When it comes to blending into other colors, overlap the shades until you want the other color to be the most dominent.

I find that crosshatch shading helps with eliminating the sketchy feeling. The closeknit coloring creates a really neat effect, and if done right, you can’t even tell that the image was colored with pencil. Instead, it will come out looking like a textured watercolor image.

Blending with a Kleenex

This is my favorite method of shading. In fact, I love it so much that over 98% of my drawings utlize the Kleenex shading/blending method. First, color your entire image with the colors you want. Once coloring is complete, take the Kleenex and rub it over the colors. If you want light blending, press the Kleenex down gently. For a more dramatic shading effect, press down hard. Move the Kleenex up and down, side to side, and across. My favorite method? Moving the Kleenex in a circular fashion because of the smoothness.

Tortillions

I only like to use tortillions for graphite drawings, not for colored pencils. If you use the tortillions for colored pencil shading, you have to use different tortillions for each color because the colors bleed. The reverse is true for graphite pencils. If you use tortillions for graphite drawings, don’t use them for colored pencil drawing. If you do, your bright colors will turn grey.

Tortillions are used in the same fashion as the Kleenex. Blend your colors or shades in circlular motions or in left to right, up and down fashions. Again, for a more dramatic blended effect, press hard. For softer shades, press lightly. Pressure is your friend.

Your Finger

Use your index finger to push the colors around. For this, however, you need to press hard with your finger in order to blend. Not only does this hurt your finger, but you may actually lift the colors from your image. If you really don’t have any tools, this blending technique is a decent way to blend your colors. Once again, it’s better to shade in a circular fashion using this method.

So there you have it; blending techniques for traditional art. I hope this was helpful. Does anyone else have any other blending tips? If so, please comment below!

My Nyquil is kicking in, so I think it’s bedtime. Goodnight everyone!

Love always,

Mari

Tags: Art Tutorial, Blending, blending tutorial, crosshatch shading, how to blend colors, How To Shade, shading, Shading Tutorial, traditional Art