Stomps or Dry brush for blending (Traditional Art Question)

DrunkShaman

Greetings Polycounters;

As the title states I just want to know what do you guys use to blend the shadow and other sorts of detail while making arts traditionally..

Stomps or Dry brush.

I've been using stomps for few days and they dont really work well on the medium tooth paper, they would help you blend the shadow details but they leave a pencil mark. The other is the dry brush, a method that I've been thinking of trying out.

Any ideas will be really appreciated.

Thanks.

arrangemonk

some people like drawing with watercolor pencils and then use fine brushes ( + water) to refine the details or smear

Rens

Stomps for me dont work well with pencil, I personaly dislike them alot cause they dont feel consistend.

A brush works quite well and it doesnt get dirty in a way the stomp does.
I guess the effect ranges on your pencils HB

I still prefer using my finger to smudge shadows, ofcourse this can go horribly wrong if its moisty or greasy. You can try using a piece of cloth with it, This way you dont put a grey finger to the paper but can pick a different piece of the cloth.

Overall for shadows, the finer your paper the better.
I prefer to use paper ment for markers, they tend to be smooth and not too expensive.

Sandro

I have hard time understanding why people try to smudge and smear their work in the first place. Values can be built up and blended with pencil alone just fine. If you have large areas to cover use side of pencil and you'll get charcoal-like marks.

Do you use blending tools to get rid of actual pencil marks? and if yes, why?

ZacD

Sometimes people don't want pencil marks, and instead want soft smooth areas. Its a personal preference thing, and there's a lot of cool stuff you can do by creating variations in textures. Over blending/smudging is a pretty common newbie mistake though. But there's no reason to not have a tool because of it.

Rens

It comes down to render style and workflow.

Yes you can do alot with pencil alone, but sometimes you benifit from a trick like smuding. Personaly I like drawing in a more realistic style, so any lines or marks are a big no, and you have more control over certain gradients.

It could be a way of building down or distributing values, a thing that is harder to do.

DrunkShaman

ZacD wrote: »

Sometimes people don't want pencil marks, and instead want soft smooth areas. Its a personal preference thing, and there's a lot of cool stuff you can do by creating variations in textures. Over blending/smudging is a pretty common newbie mistake though. But there's no reason to not have a tool because of it.

Wait, what?

Xenobond

I never really liked 'stomps' either. Just didn't feel good to me. I just use a shammy cloth or clean rags (cut up sections of old tshirt), depending on how much I want to spread around. Although, this is only when I'm working in charcoals. I try not to smudge anything if I'm using pencils... they almost always turn out looking like bad smudges from dropping your hand on it. :S

ambershee

I paint rarely, but personally I prefer going the feathering route, usually taking the lighter colour over the darker (rather than the usual other way around) with a wet second brush. I've had difficulty quickly googling any articles about the technique, so I'll see what I can do when I'm not at work.

ZacD

Nitewalkr wrote: »

Wait, what?

In the art classes I took lots of kids over did it with the smudge sticks until it looks messy and blurry.

DrunkShaman

ZacD wrote: »

In the art classes I took lots of kids over did it with the smudge sticks until it looks messy and blurry.

So, over doing it is a mistake, using it or learning how to use it, is not..

right?

ZacD

I was mostly replying to Sandro's comment, with that statement, just try it out and see how it works for you.

DrunkShaman

Sandro wrote: »

I have hard time understanding why people try to smudge and smear their work in the first place. Values can be built up and blended with pencil alone just fine. If you have large areas to cover use side of pencil and you'll get charcoal-like marks.

Do you use blending tools to get rid of actual pencil marks? and if yes, why?

It is indeed true that you would want to build shadowing detail from light to dark, but you would not want to leave the pencil strokes there because that wouldnt be efficient. To be rid of that and blending the shadow detail from dark to light, you would want to use either a dry brush, or stomps. Some people do use their fingers, but that doesnt really work out for the places like eyebrows, or shadow detail in the eyes.

Although, as Sir. Zac Donald stated that there is a greater chance that people who are new to life drawing, sketching and anything relative to that field will over use the stomp or dry brush and fail to use the tool for the main purpose, and there are many alternatives for blending like a napkin, or Q-Tips. By far dry brushes or stomps are a way to go for me thus far, because it is better to learn and add to my work flow so that whenever I sketch some rough concept out on a piece of paper, I should have some shadowing detail to go with it. (Since I carry an art bin with me where ever I go <.<.)

Also, since Sir. Rense stated that he uses the dry brush for his work, I'll go with that since his work is known to be close to portrait like.

MagicSugar

Nitewalkr wrote: »

Greetings Polycounters;

they would help you blend the shadow details but they leave a pencil mark. The other is the dry brush, a method that I've been thinking of trying out.

Thanks.

Depends on the softness of your pencil. They are available in varying degrees. If you use an H or 2H, you'll have to resort to hatch lines for blending whereas if you us B pencils they're smudgy characteristic is better applied when using paper stomps or kneadable erasers.

If you're going for smoother shade transitions you may want to try out charcoal pencils or chalk. You know Scott Robertson? In his Gnomon dvds he uses chalk on vellum paper and a makeup applicator pad as his blender.

fmnoor

shammy for wider toning, thumb or a piece of rough paper for finer smudges. But definitely only for charcoal as mentioned above. Don't think I've drawn with pencils so I can't suggest how well it works for that (I guess if you use a soft pencil it might be ok)

skankerzero

When I used to do colored pencil work, I would use a marker blender to blend my prizma colors.
I would work on marker paper, so I got an awesome, smooth feel to my colored pencils.

DrunkShaman

fmnoor wrote: »

shammy for wider toning, thumb or a piece of rough paper for finer smudges. But definitely only for charcoal as mentioned above. Don't think I've drawn with pencils so I can't suggest how well it works for that (I guess if you use a soft pencil it might be ok)

Really do not want to buy a charcoal set, otherwise I'll have black marks all over my room. xD

Anyways, since it is kind of cheaper to try both methods, (and I have tried one of them,) I'll probably go and buy dry brushes whenever I get time.