A light touch is essential so the graphite is enhanced—not covered. Apply the color with an even application. You don't have to alter your pressure as you apply the pencil. It's the graphite and gray tones underneath that make the color look light or dark.
Yes, you can mix media. But you need to preserve some of the tooth of your paper's surface to successfully transition from working with graphite to charcoal. The tooth of your paper determines how well things will catch and hold to the surface of the paper.
Blending Tortillions and Stumps
Both are used for blending the graphite pencil. Tortillions are spiralwound pieces of paper that are good for small areas. Stumps are paper pressed and formed into the shape of a pencil. They are pointed on both ends and work well for blending large areas.
Oil-based solvents, such as turpenoid, can be used to blend colored pencil because they dissolve the wax. It is one of the strongest blends you can get.
Graphite pencils are often considered more suitable for smaller drawings since they have a smaller, more detail-oriented range. This means that they take more time to cover a large space. Charcoals tend to be more suitable to larger drawings since they are good for large, broad strokes.
The best pencils for drawing and sketching are a HB, 2B, 6B and 9B. Far better than buying a whole set of pencils, most of which will never be used.
The humble graphite pencil is the workhorse of many artists toolkits. Made from graphite blends mixed with wax, drawing and sketching pencils are a versatile mark making tool perfect for jotting down quick ideas, plotting compositions or even for highly detailed drawings.
Graphite is very easy to smear, so use caution in handling it while applying it and after it's on the paper. It's best to apply a coat or two of workable fixative or retouch varnish to seal the graphite before using colored pencil. 2. Colored pencil picks up graphite very easily, creating muddy, gray color.
Actually, graphite ranges in color from gray to black to blue in terms of the hues and tones.
I use graphite and pastel en plein air, but the technique can be equally effective in the studio, and you don't need a lot of pastels; a handful can provide plenty of values and a good range of color. The paper sets the middle tone and unifies the piece while the graphite delivers volume, shadows and darks.
Graphite is a crystalline form of carbon and is useful as a writing and drawing tool, as only the slightest pressure is needed to leave a mark. It has a greasy texture and is dull metallic grey in colour. Graphite is a stable and permanent material but can easily be removed using an eraser.
The Range of Drawing Pencils and What They Look Like
6H is the lightest and hardest grade pencil; 8B is the darkest and softest grade. This is based on Faber-Castell's line of pencils. There are other manufactures that may make lighter and darker pencils, but they are not typical of what you will find on the market.
The degree of soft black, hard, hard black, and firm are then further classified by numbers, the higher the number the higher the intensity. The 16 degrees of graphite pencil hardness are: 8B, 7B, 6B, 5B, 4B, 3B, 2B, B, HB, F, H, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H, and 6H.
You can use pencil and charcoal together but there are things you want to be mindful of. Charcoal applied over pencil works much better than the reverse. Also, charcoal works better over hard H-grade pencils than it does over soft B-grade pencils. White charcoal does not work well over graphite.
Although both Graphite and Charcoal are have a carbon base, they do have quite distinct differences. One of their most noticeable differences is their finish. While charcoal gives a rich, matte black finish, graphite will always remain slightly reflective and metallic.