Realism

My paper stumps came through the post and I immediately wanted to try them out, mainly to see whether they made much of a difference to blending than using my finger. I decided that I wanted to draw an eye and after taking various photos of my own eye, found a suitable photo to use that wasn’t covered in shadow. This is the end result:

I drew a grid over the printed photo and then drew a larger grid in my sketch book as I wanted the sketch to be a lot bigger than the original photo so that it would provide me with a bigger platform to work on. I also wanted the drawing to be in the correct proportion and angle.

The paper stumps that I bought came in three sizes, and I worked primarily with the smaller one due to the detail of the eye. I was pleasantly surprised with the end result as the blending was much more accurate, and the added bonus was that my hands weren’t covered in pencil. The main issue with this sketch is that the right side of the iris should have been slightly rounder; it looks a bit flat on that side. I was able to use the smaller paper stump for blending the eyeball and to make it look more realistic and cleaner. If I had used my finger to blend then the finished drawing wouldn’t have looked so clean. I used the medium-sized paper stump to blend around the outer area of the eye. This helped give the eye more depth and made it more three-dimensional.

For my first attempt at blending using paper stumps, I’m really pleased with the outcome as it allowed me to draw and shade the eye in great detail. This is my favourite piece of work so far and I’m glad I purchased the stumps. I’m gradually expanding my art equipment and I now need to find a decent white pencil. I’ve recently bought a large selection of colouring pencils and I’m going to start completing some of my work in colour. I’ve always enjoyed shading as it looks so effective, but I need to come out of my comfort zone and try different materials.