Nude Study
Drawing by Ronnie Rayner Larter
Originally I used a lot of soft blending with graphite pencil, but since becoming a member of the Drawing Academy I progressed onto hatching and cross hatching, which was a new and interesting avenue for me. However, even though the academy seems to frown the technique soft blending graphite, I have kind of ignored that teaching and also taken on board the idea of hatching. I now use a combination of soft blending and hatching to achieve the effects I need. Does it work well or not? Feedback would be welcome.
Categorized: Students Gallery
It would be interesting to do another rendering of this same subject and pose and just use the hatching method of rendering. This would give you a clear visual sense of the qualitative difference between the two. While this one looks quite nice, it may be that the one using only hatching might give a more elegant and finished quality to the drawing. I find that the smudging makes her skin look rather rough on her chest and breasts. I am new to the hatching technique and I am surprised to find even a drawing of geometric objects look so beautiful with the hatching. It’s taking me a lot of practice but I feel the effort is worth it. Hope this is helpful!
I think your drawing is very nice. I would have to agree with Marianne. I think it would look better without the soft blending. In my opinion I think it makes it look dirty. Just trying to help. keep up the great work. You are very talented.
What you are seeing isn’t the original quality of the drawing. The original looks much better, EVEN though it has smudged graphite. Smudge or not is a personal preference. I like it as an undertone to hatching and that’s all there is to it.
What you are seeing in that photo of my nude is in fact short stroke hatching, not the soft blending. In the orginal, the soft tone blending or smudging for a better word is only just noticable to remove the whiteness of the paper; THAT is why I smudge in the early stages of a drawing. I have worked as an artist for a little over 50 years as well as freelance as a graphic designer and experimented with various shading techniques, and yes, I agree, soft blending graphite can look muddy, but only if soft blending is the only method use for creating tonal values. HOWEVER, just as artists use an earthy undercolour to cover the white canvas, I experimented using soft blended graphite as an undertone on white paper onto which I then develope the range of tonal values needed by hatching and cross-hatching.