Gradations. Blend and Burnish. Shade and Burnish a Vertical Gradation

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1 Level: Beginner Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 9.6 Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 58.0 Drawspace Curriculum 1.2.A2-6 Pages and 10 Illustrations Blend and Burnish Gradations Create smoothly-rendered gradations with blending, burnishing, and layering techniques Supplies: drawing paper, rough watercolor paper with a heavily textured surface, 4H, 2H, HB, 2B, and 4B pencils, paper towel Figure 1 Tip! Resources: 1.2.R1 Welcome to Drawing from Line to Life 1.2.R3 Blending and Burnishing This activity has four sections: Shade and Burnish a Vertical Gradation Burnish and Blend a Smooth Gradation Create a Smooth Gradation with Layering Compare Gradations Shade and Burnish a Vertical Gradation Burnishing is an excellent tool for smoothing tones and gradations. To burnish shading, a harder grade of pencil is layered over a softer grade to push the softer grade of graphite into the small indentations in the paper. Doing this effectively covers up any little white specks in your drawing, resulting in a smooth, even tone. Refer to 1.2.R1 Welcome to Drawing from Line to Life to find out how to sharpen your pencils to a chisel point (Figure 1). As an Aside Don t let drawing create stress. Take it from me no matter what level you attain you will always find work that exceeds your own. We all begin at the same point we just take our own time to reach our potential. Just relax and enjoy yourself!

2 2 1.2.A2: Blend and Burnish Gradations Burnishing sometimes flattens the tooth of the paper and gives the graphite a polished appearance. Figure 2 1. Outline a box (rectangle) on your drawing paper about 2 by 3 in (5 by 7.5 cm). 2. Make a mark one-third down the height just outside the box (Figure 2). 3. Add a second mark two-thirds down. 4. Use a 4B pencil to begin shading in the box. Use the flat side of your chisel points and work horizontally from side to side. Start at the top and use as much weight as you can to make a solid black. Work in the top third of the box only, gradually decreasing the weight as you work downwards, lightening the tone to almost white as you reach the first marker you drew at the side. If you prefer, you may start at the marker and work upwards from light to dark. Don t worry about keeping the lines inside the box and you may want to go over the area a few times to produce a smooth result. Try to cover up as many of the little white gaps as possible. To make it easier, look at the next gap in the shading (white space) and not at the line your pencil is making. Figure 3 This way, you watch until the gap disappears and the feedback to your hand is about the gap and not focused on trying to match the pencil stroke to the tones around it. 5. Use an HB pencil to repeat Step 4 (Figure 3). Begin right at the top, so you draw over your 4B gradation. But, this time, try to lighten the tone to white as you approach the second marker. You should now have two-thirds of the box completed with a blend ranging from a mix of 4B and HB graphite at the top, down to a mere suggestion of HB graphite at the bottom of the mid-section.

3 1.2.A2: Blend and Burnish Gradations 3 6. Use a 4H pencil to repeat Step 5. Figure 4 Refer to Figure 4 and begin again right at the top. Gradually lighten the tone as you progress downwards until you leave the very bottom slim segment white. The top section should now have three layers of graphite (4B, HB and 4H); the central section should have layers of both HB and 4H; and the bottom third should contain only 4H that fades to white at the base. Burnish and Blend a Smooth Gradation This shading technique works best on watercolor paper with a heavily textured surface. 1. Draw a square about 3 by 3 in (7.5 by 7.5 cm). 2. Create another gradation of values using the same process as before (Figure 5). This time, use pencil strokes in one direction only in this case, from the top corner to the opposite bottom corner. Don t reverse direction and make strokes from the bottom corner to the top corner. Start with a heavier weight at the top and reduce the weight as you move downwards, tapering off as you end the line to produce a feathering effect. Step 1: Use your 2B pencil and apply some weight in the top-right corner and feather the strokes towards the middle of the square (or top-left if you re lefthanded). Figure 5 Step 2: Use your HB pencil over the 2B shading, but extend the strokes further down the square than the 2B shading. Step 3: Use your 2H pencil over the other two grades and extend it almost to the bottom-left corner. Leave the bottom corner white at this stage to ensure that only the graphite carried by the blender creates the lightest shading.

4 4 1.2.A2: Blend and Burnish Gradations 3. Wrap a piece of paper towel around your finger and use it to gently blend the shading. Refer to Figures 6 and 7. Blending moves the graphite around on the paper, so pay attention to the directionality of your blending. To create a stronger gradation, blend from light to dark using lightly-applied, circular movements. Blending from light to dark prevents the softer, darker graphite from getting onto the white area. Tip! Blending is a tricky technique with some limitations. It can lighten dark tones and darken light tones by redistributing graphite from one section to another. But, blending can t make a hard edge disappear, or seamlessly blend dark to light when two sections are separated by a white space. Your pencil produces the graduated or evenly toned areas not your blender, which is only used to smooth out irregularities. Figure 6 (Blending with kitchen paper towel from dark to light) Paper towel is better than tissue as a tool for blending because it picks up less graphite. To blend the area containing a white space, work in overlapping arcs from the darkest tones down toward the midtones. Remember to considerably reduce the weight of the blending as you approach the midtones. Figure 7 (Completed blending) Try changing your circular blending motion to lightly stroked, radiating lines, so the white corner receives just a little of the harder graphite. Your paper towel picks up soft graphite from the darkest corner and: mixes the soft graphite with the central HB graphite. picks up HB graphite and moves it over the 2H grade. The result is a smooth blend of graphite spread evenly over the surface. As a refinement, use a clean paper towel to blend towards, but not reaching, the darkest corner. This will brighten the lighter area by removing graphite.

5 1.2.A2: Blend and Burnish Gradations 5 Create a Smooth Gradation with Layering Both layering and burnishing techniques require the application of additional graphite over top of an already shaded section. However, burnishing uses a harder grade pencil to push softer graphite into the small indentations in the paper (sometimes flattening the tooth of the paper). In comparison, layering can give you much greater control and flexibility than blending. Layering simply adds additional graphite over top of the graphite that is already on the paper. 1. Outline a small box on your drawing paper about 2 by 3 in (5 by 7.5 cm). Working in a small area enables you to control your shading without shifting your gaze. 2. Add shading as follows to create a smooth gradation (Figure 8). Step 1: Use a 2B pencil to draw the darkest band at the top and then extend downward to just below the halfway point, using progressively less pressure. Step 2: Add a layer of HB pencil over the 2B graphite and extend down to the threequarter point. Notice how your 2B tone increases in intensity as the harder grade breaks up the 2B granules and fills the tiny holes in your paper. Step 3: Add a layer of 2H graphite over the previous two layers and extend almost down to the bottom. Step 4: Finally, add a layer of 4H pencil over the entire area. Don t use your 2H or 4H too heavily or you may indent your paper. The harder grades are best used more lightly. Figure 8 Successive layers permit fine control over the tonal gradation and also blend the graphite granules of the softer grades increasing their intensity. Use this layering technique when you want to: create a dark value that looks smooth and solid. preserve the sharpness of edges and detail, especially in foreground ares. Compare Gradations 1. Compare the layered gradation (Figure 9) to the blended one (Figure 10). Note how much smoother the shading is when created with hard grades as compared to the grainier soft grades. You can use this to your advantage.

6 6 1.2.A2: Blend and Burnish Gradations For example, you could use a soft grade for drawing a dirt floor, or a harder smooth grade for drawing a shiny metal flask. The values might be the same, but the perceived surface texture is completely different. Now you can use layering to produce all the intermediate textures too! Happy drawing! Cheers. Figure 9 Figure 10 Tip! Try not to use blending as a shortcut to speed up the coverage of an area or to suggest a form in the background. Blending is an excellent tool for producing a particular effect and requires attention in the preparatory stages. Before you decide to blend, bear in mind that it will partially flatten the tooth of your paper. If additional drawing is needed in that area, blending with medium to heavy pressure may make further layers difficult (or even impossible) to add. Layering does not have the same limitations as blending. As long as you always apply a hard grade over a soft grade, additional layers are possible. Caution! Drawing from Line to Life (Book) by Mike Sibley Based on Mike s experience of over 30 years as a professional artist and graphite pencil specialist. Don t blend unless there is a good reason why it will enhance your drawing. Blending not only smooths your shading, it also softens edges. Texture in a drawing gives a lively quality. Over-blending can cause the drawing to lose its texture, so, before you blend, really think about why, how, and where in your drawing the blending should or should not be. Blending works best for the mid-ground or background where the eye expects to find a blurring of detail and soft-focus edges and textures.