... shade a woman's face with unblended hatching it always makes me think like she's growing a beard. I did the lesson on Claudette this evening. On the whole I am quite pleased with the results but I am rather unsure about the shading particularly round the mouth and jaw area.

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The shading in the orginal is a little deeper than it appears in the scan... the scanner always seems to lighten the graphite.

Also about the hair. Why does mine never look as smooth as it does in the lesson. I did try to follow as closely as possible.

One final question. When you hatch or cross hatch what area do you cover at a time... an inch square, two inches, as far as your hand will go without curving the hatch? None of the tutorials I've read are specific about this.

and thanks.

Rose,

I wish I could help you or at least answer your questions, but I have never done a portrait entirely using hatching or crosshatching....although I would like to try. I do use these techniques in conjunction with other techniques...it depends on what textures I'm trying to create.

I do use hatching in cloth texture...since I work tight the length of my line is as you said only to the point it would begin to arch...and the weight of the pencil is the heaviest pressure that I allow. That allows me to control the values by building layers and reduces graphite shine. It also makes erasing easier and doesn't leave indentations in my paper.

More than that ...we'll have to ask Miss Jeanette or Brenda.
Hope this helps a little,
Laura

Rose, I think your drawing is very well rendered. You can go deeper in tone still to reach the tonal values that the lesson shows.

Hatching is a classic technique for shading and I find to do so seamlessly you need to cover the entire drawing surface with pencil strokes and deepen the shading in areas of darker tone. That way you avoid the 'bearded' look that I think you're talking about.

In a drawing, especially a portrait, the only part of the white paper that should show through is the catchlight in the eye and any highlight on a tooth if it shows. All skin tones should have an initial layer of graphite applied. It may look odd at first, but remember that if you do not have a background drawn it will seem darker in comparison to the whiteness of the paper. A background will really reduce the tones of your drawing.

As for hatching stroke length, there is no hard and fast rule. Do what is comfortable to you and what suits the image that you are drawing. To fill large spaces, the length of your line will be longer and shorter in smaller, tighter areas.

Remember that hatching is just one form of shading, try out others and see which suits you best. Try some of Brenda's lessons using other forms of shading and blending and see how they turn out.

I, too, rarely use just hatching to complete a drawing. For true realism, I use circulism mostly, which involves no blending and no erasing. Its slow but effective in achieving skin texture.

Pencil pressure and the number of layers used achieve the tone that you need.

I hope that helps a bit.

Thank you so much Laura and Jeanette.... really this site is priceless for all the good advice given!

I'm always so thankful that established artists like you should take the trouble to look at stuff a newbie like me cares to post and proceed to give such detailed replies. In the few weeks I've been here I have learned so much and most of it came from your expert advice which leaves nothing to chance.

Thank you from my heart.

I have heard circulism mentioned before on this site. Is there a lesson or two here that deals with circulism?

Thanks,
Chris

Rose, I'm happy that you're getting something out of this information. I firmly believe that the whole concept of art is to share knowledge and watch people use it and make it their own.

Chris, I'll work on a quick tutorial on the basics of circulism and post it soon.

Thanks! That would be cool.

Chris