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Cataclysm-X — Tutorial: Shading and Blending
by-nc-nd
Published: 2007-08-30 13:36:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 504038; Favourites: 7858; Downloads: 11833
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Description
...::EDIT::...Larger and edited file on request.
Several people were complaining about the small font. Leaving critiques and comments are more than welcome, but I just don't like it when people use my tutorials and at the same time nitpick about the smallest things and don't even leave a "thank you" note.
So for those who do appreciate the 30 hours I spent in writing and drawing this tutorial: I uploaded a larger file. You can click download for full size.
...Whoa...
This is a MASSIVE tutorial I did in only 2 freakin' days! LOL.
I said I would do a gift for you all because someone hit the 60.000 pageviews. Besides, I got over 1550 watchers and my drawings of Vincent and House got over 1000 favourites.
Ooohh look at the pretty colors. My previous tutorials look quite boring compared to this baby.
Ehm... what else to say...
Have fun!
Watch my other tutorials here!
1. Eye Tutorial
2. Nose Tutorial
3. Hair Tutorial
4. Shading & Blending Tutorial
5. Drawing Progress Tutorial
6. Detailed Hair part 1 Tutorial
7. Detailed Hair part 2 Tutorial
8. Editing Drawings Tutorial
9. Drawing Materials Tutorial
10. Male Lips Tutorial
11. Female Lips Tutorial
12. Proportions Tutorial
13. Group Images Tutorial
...EDIT...
Tortillions cannot be reused except for smudged areas.
However, blendingsticks can be used more often if you sharpen them with a pencil sharpener or sandpaper!!
Kudos
Related content
Comments: 961
This was very helpful. (: Thanks for sharing! 8D I hope it helps me improve with a pencil. xD
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Awesome tutorial! This will really help me with a portrait I'm shading/blending today.
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Nice tutorial, but I have a question for you that was not explained.How do you fill/shade an area in?Do you cross-hatch, use uniforms pencil strokes(like all in one direction), or what?
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I have featured this in my journal for the month of April I hope you don't mind.
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When aren't you supposed to blend??? U mentioned it, but u didn't actually say it. I want to know what I'm not supposed to blend--like clothes, or something.
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it doesnt explain how to use a tortilllian, well not in a way i can understand. what do you mean i can only use it once? i dont wanna spend money on something for a one time thing. when you do use it do you go over the pencil area you wanna detail so it comes out a certain way, or the negative space, like the eye...use it around the area of shine...?
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Ooo~ I might actually try to spend more than a half hour on a drawing so I can make it look good. :3 I need to go to the art store and get some more shading pencils, cause I lost one and I only have HB, 2B, and 4B. I lost my other one. xP
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this is slightly random
but is that House?
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Hey you have nice drawing on your gallery and good tutorial. Just to let you know if you want you can just use a file to remove the lead from the tortillions. Then you can use it many more times! :wink:
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wow great tutorial^^ ive only just begun to learn and practice blending but this should really help.
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Thanks a trillion! I appreciate your hardwork
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I never thought about blending with a tissue - this tutorial is very helpful, I already tried this technique and it was fun 
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If you want to use a tortillion more than a couple times, you can use a little sandpaper on the business end. THe graphite all sands away leaving a clean stump!
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I know, I wrote it in the description a while ago, but never changed the tutorial itself
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Whoops! Missed that 
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Thanks soooo much! I was looking for a nice way to shade my drawings!
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thank you for doing this, it helped loads
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Finally I'll be able to shade faces! Yes!
Uh... how much do tortillions cost anyway? Because that's the only material I need.
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thanks so much for this! Definetly going to help!
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me too! LOL your welcome! Your nose tutorial allready helped so much! I tried it out last nite works wonders!
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Thank you so much for taking the time to sahre your experience!
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I used to use pencils a ton in my artwork, before I moved onto painting with oils and inks.
But I'd never tried blending the tones before!
I'd even worked in an Arts and Crafts shop, and never knew what Tortillions were used for.
Brilliant tutorial - it'll definitely help when I'm trying to add more realism to my Life Drawing sketches.
Thanks very much!
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LOL
Well I didn't know a thing about tortillions either until I figured out several artists at dA are using them
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A-ha! The secret's out then!
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Now I know how to use tortillins.
Also, and this may be totally daft of me, but what are 'b', '2b', and whatever other type of pencils? Can you just use one sort or is it really better to get the different ones? What makes them so different?
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B pencils, like B, 2B, or even 9B, are dark pencils. The higher the number, the darker they are.
Same goes for H pencils, but they're very light! 9H is much more lighter than 4H for instance
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Okay.
How do I find them? I'm still kinda confused. I mostly just use mechanical pencils I buy from the store. How can you tell the difference and such?
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hmm the cover of the leads say they're 2B leads for your mechanical pencil, or HB, or 2H... <--- most common ones
when you use them, you can see the differeneces immediatly
hope that made sense to you!
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Not much, but a little. I'll try to pay attention to that the next time I go to the store...I am running out of pencils...so yeah. Maybe I need to get my dad to get me some more.
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Just want to thank you for all the effort and time you have put into all your tutorials.
Thanks so much for sharing your talent...much appreciated
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Hi!
I was reading your tutorial and I see that when you talk about dark pencils you use nothing darker than a 2b. Don't you actually use darker pencils?
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
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hey there
yeah I do use darker pencils
but for detailed stuff I never use pencils darker than 3B. But sometimes when I draw clothing or dark areas, I use darker pencils.
It's totally up to you what kind of pencils you want to use
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Thank you. It was just curiosity. I used to use dark pencil, from 2b up to 9b, but I see that most of drawer does not use them.
Thank you for sharing your skills
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I understand that you obviously have a life, but Id appreciate if you could answer one kind of poorly executed question:
I go to an art school, and they discourage all kinds of smudging or blending. Its all no-no's, even tortillions. Okay, Im not really sure what I am attempting to ask, but do you have any advice for those of us who cant blend?
Wow, I feel like an idiot. Its like asking how to play an instrument but I won't play the sharps...
Great tut, and thanks if you have the time to answer
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Haha well don't feel like an idiot because you're obviously not!
Secondly, I never really understood the reason why art schools say you can't blend and smudge your artworks with tortillions, tissues or whatever. To be, it's the best technique I ever used to blend a drawing.
So my advice would be:
use those techniques you really want to use
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i can't wait to grab some pencils and start drawing like this, honestly, it's really inspiring me and your tutorials are brilliant, i can follow them with ease and (very happily too)
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haha yay that's good news, thank you!!!
If you still need some help, feel free to send a note
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Thanks ^^ I've only just started using tortillions and I obviously knew they were for blending but I was using them for everything, big and small xD That tissue idea is great.
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;_;
i love youuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!
thank youuuuu!!
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you have really awesome tutorials...
I was trying to find some good shading tutorials for a while ,
i tried youtube and google and i think you have the best one!!
thnx.
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I think NOT having a place like this to start is one of the obstacles keeping me away from making the leap from lines to values. This knowledge has already helped my confidence - realizing it's as big a deal as I've been making of it is comforting! Thanks for all the lovely work and the resulting motivation.
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Thanks for the tutorial!
It's been awhile since I've sat down and used pencils, and just the other day I thought I'd return to them, only to find I've forgotten most of the tricks. Thanks a lot for the refresher
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This is really helpful!!! Thanks for showing this...
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