<p>You can also use different grades of pencils to change the tone of the work - also known as blending <em>(an introduction to art techniques, glossary).</em></p>

<p>To accomplish this sort of blending you use different <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil" rel="nofollow">pencil grades.</a> </p>

<p>The best example of shading and tone transition that I've seen is in <em>The Art of Pencil Drawing, by Gene Franks.</em> </p>

<p>He uses an H, F, HB, B, 3B, and 5B pencil to achieve a full range of tone. Start light make the H go as hard as you can comfortably get it then pick up the F and overlap continue as such with remaining pencils and various hand positions/techniques while drawing. Practice is recommended in his instruction of achieving tone. He says, "practice this as a musician would practice scales." </p>

<p><em>Personally I use and have used as many grades as I can get my hands on. I tend to stay with graphite, turn away from the F's, and by far consider the 12B pencil to be my all time favorite. Dark, soft, hard to find.</em> </p>

<p>Graphite, I read once, is supposed to be water soluble and create a sort of "water color" look to the pencil when water is applied. I've never quite got the look or hand of it. I find that a blending stump is most effective and comfortable when trying to soften up a sketch. That or my fingers. </p>

<p>Q-tips, erasers, water, and tortillions have been unpredictable; no matter the support. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-04T15:40:01.570Z
Just a note about graphite... it is pretty much the core of all pencils, and is not water soluble.
rebusB
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-22T21:56:28.953Z
12B!? I find 5B extremely soft, 12B must almost be liquid.
rebusB
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-05-29T22:39:32.583Z
2016-05-29T22:49:38.890Z
2016-05-29T22:49:38.890Z
The Emperor of the Republic
<p>My favorite for blending is graphite powder applied with a piece of chamois, available at some art stores. You can make the powder yourself by shaving a pencil lead (or block) with a sharp bladed tool or by running the lead over sand paper. I finally bought a small jar of graphite. If you want to avoid making random marks when applying the powder, the chamois should be artist quality and very thin. Not so easy to find are the small, ready-made sand blocks I have used in the past that were made for this purpose. Standard fine sandpaper would suffice. The cost for these products is minimal.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-03T17:40:50.030Z
2024-04-03T17:40:50.030Z
Ruth
<p>When drawing pictures with a pencil, I often want to create a more or less solid darker colour in some region. It's easy to shade an area so that it appears a solid dark colour from a distance, e.g. by hatching or cross-hatching, but I'd like to be able to blur the lines in a hatched or cross-hatched area so that the darkness is uniform even when looking at the picture close up.</p>

<p>In the past I achieved this using a special eraser I had. As an eraser it was very bad, since instead of rubbing out pencil marks it blurred them and made them spread darkly across a bigger region. This, however, made it perfect for creating uniformly dark areas in pencil drawings.</p>

<p>Now that I don't have that eraser any more (or at least, I don't know where it is to lay my hands on it), I'd like to know a better method.</p>

<p><strong>After shading an area with pencil strokes, how can I blur these strokes together to get a uniformly dark region?</strong></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-05-23T13:08:56.803Z
That sounds like basically any eraser you pick up at a dollar store or one of those horrible "eraser toppers" that you can get from Oriental Trading or Walmart.
Wayne Werner
<drawing><pencils><pencil-shading><blending>
How do I get a blur (blended) effect in pencil drawings?
Rand al'Thor
# How do I get a blur (blended) effect in pencil drawings?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-05-22)

When drawing pictures with a pencil, I often want to create a more or less solid darker colour in some region. It's easy to shade an area so that it appears a solid dark colour from a distance, e.g. by hatching or cross-hatching, but I'd like to be able to blur the lines in a hatched or cross-hatched area so that the darkness is uniform even when looking at the picture close up.

In the past I achieved this using a special eraser I had. As an eraser it was very bad, since instead of rubbing out pencil marks it blurred them and made them spread darkly across a bigger region. This, however, made it perfect for creating uniformly dark areas in pencil drawings.

Now that I don't have that eraser any more (or at least, I don't know where it is to lay my hands on it), I'd like to know a better method.

**After shading an area with pencil strokes, how can I blur these strokes together to get a uniformly dark region?**

**Tags:** drawing, pencils, pencil-shading, blending

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: That sounds like basically any eraser you pick up at a dollar store or one of those horrible "eraser toppers" that you can get from Oriental Trading or Walmart.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2016-05-29. Score: 3

You can also use different grades of pencils to change the tone of the work - also known as blending *(an introduction to art techniques, glossary).*

To accomplish this sort of blending you use different [pencil grades.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil)

The best example of shading and tone transition that I've seen is in *The Art of Pencil Drawing, by Gene Franks.*

He uses an H, F, HB, B, 3B, and 5B pencil to achieve a full range of tone. Start light make the H go as hard as you can comfortably get it then pick up the F and overlap continue as such with remaining pencils and various hand positions/techniques while drawing. Practice is recommended in his instruction of achieving tone. He says, "practice this as a musician would practice scales."

*Personally I use and have used as many grades as I can get my hands on. I tend to stay with graphite, turn away from the F's, and by far consider the 12B pencil to be my all time favorite. Dark, soft, hard to find.*

Graphite, I read once, is supposed to be water soluble and create a sort of "water color" look to the pencil when water is applied. I've never quite got the look or hand of it. I find that a blending stump is most effective and comfortable when trying to soften up a sketch. That or my fingers.

Q-tips, erasers, water, and tortillions have been unpredictable; no matter the support.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Just a note about graphite... it is pretty much the core of all pencils, and is not water soluble.  
> **username_3**: 12B!? I find 5B extremely soft, 12B must almost be liquid.  

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### Answer by username_4 on 2024-04-03. Score: 1

My favorite for blending is graphite powder applied with a piece of chamois, available at some art stores. You can make the powder yourself by shaving a pencil lead (or block) with a sharp bladed tool or by running the lead over sand paper. I finally bought a small jar of graphite. If you want to avoid making random marks when applying the powder, the chamois should be artist quality and very thin. Not so easy to find are the small, ready-made sand blocks I have used in the past that were made for this purpose. Standard fine sandpaper would suffice. The cost for these products is minimal.


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