Once you have hatched the major value masses of your portrait you are ready to blend and “take out” the lights with a putty eraser.

A stump is a cylindrical devise tapered at the ends and commonly made of rolled paper.

Stumping then is to smudge or blend your hatchings with a stump. The intent of blendingis to produce gradations and halftones and to give particular value areas a softer look.

Blending can be done in other ways. You can utilize tissue paper or even your fingers or both. When using your fingers be sure to clean off any oily deposits with a tissue.

Blending must be done in a sculpturally manner. You should literally cut out the form while invoking both the structural anatomy and the plane changes. As you draw identify each anatomical detail. This is in particular advisable when you work on complex structures such as the nose and the eyes.

In a comparable fashion you can utilize your kneaded eraser to “take out” pencil dust to lighten particularareas. Again, go about it in a sculpturally fashion. Use the putty eraser as if it is a brush.

Now and then you may want to make use of the concept of “closure”. Your mind has a propensity to fill in the holes in your observations. That is, the mind has a need for “closure”. You can make judicious use of this propensity and leave particular parts of your portrait unresolved. It adds interest to your sketch as the viewer’s mind will unconsciously finalize the portrait for you.

After you have done lots of blending and removing graphite with your putty eraser it is time to further articulate the shapes and planes by cross-hatching with a harder pencil (e.g., a 2H pencil). But, there are a few things to look out for at this stage.

Care must be taken not to render the light side of the face too darkly or it will look like a contusion. The smile-line is also difficult. If you over-stress it you will end up with a scorn. It is best to under-stress it and let the viewer’s sense of closure finish it for you.

An essential consideration must be made when sketching from a paper picture. A paper picture should only be reference material. That means visual decisions must be made. For example:

- What sort of emotional reaction are you after? When people view your portrait what sort of initial gut reaction do you want them to have to your sketch. Good technique is absolutely necessary. But it will count for nothing if it is frosty cold and dry.

- Make choices. You should not draw every small facet but only the essential ones. Use your artistic judgement to make these choices.

A hard 4H pencil can be used to make the already dark areas even darker with cross-hatching.

Careful consideration must be given to the edges of the shapes in your sketch. For example, as a form turns away from the light source its tone increasingly gets darker and takes on a soft edge.

A cast shadow has a hard edge. The form of a cast shadow is determined by the form of the entity throwing the shadow and the form upon which it is being thrown.

End the sketch by paying attention to the essential details. You also want to further tweak and balance the constructed values. Your sketch must always read as a interconnected entity even if you choose not to bring it to a complete finish.

These few simple guidelines will set you on the proper path. Apply them accurately and soon your pencil portraits will look a lot better.

Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait drawing? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing course here: pencil portrait tutorial.

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and practiced drawing teacher. See his work at pencil portraits by Remi.

P.S. Let’s stop criticizing the video game art – better get a cheap PlayStation 3 and test it yourself.