And We're Blendingggggg

   One of the hardest and least favorite part about painting would have to be Blending. The most common reason is because it never comes out the way the artist wants it. It also varies between what the artist is using such as paint or pencil.

Blending and Scumbling - Acrylic Paint Lesson

Female Nose

              

   Above shows how blending appears in both drawing and paint. It's just using different shades of color being combined together smoothly to show a nice shade. It's commonly used in realistic drawings or landscapes to show how realistic the artist wants the painting to be.

  Blending was very difficult to accomplish for me, To this day, I still can not make a nice blend on any of my drawings. I've realized that the reason I couldn't create a nice blend was because I've been doing it wrong. I've always used my fingers to blend graphite onto the paper. It wasn't until I read a website about blending that using your fingers to blend the graphite on a paper is the worst way to do it. The reason for this is because fingers have natural oils and trying to blend graphite onto the paper will just smudge the graphite onto the fingers rather than the paper. I should also add that every time I used my fingers to blend the lead, it would never blend correctly. The graphite always just stuck to my finger and damage the paper every time I struggled to rub the graphite back onto the paper. It wasn't until I tried erasing to start over, that the graphite was rubbed in the paper and it would not come off. I ruined the drawing and I couldn't do anything about it anymore. What I'm trying to say is that, don't ruin your drawing by blending incorrectly.

  The best tools to blend on a drawing are Blending Stumps and Tortillions. They are sticks of rolled up felt paper with pointed ends. The difference between them are not that significant. A tortillion is harder than a blending stump, so it requires more effort to blend graphite onto a paper. It should also be used at an angle or else the tip would collapse and it would have to be fixed back into place with a toothpick or any other small pointed object.

   

Arya Stark (Game of Thrones) Speed Drawing

   To blend with a blending stump requires to use the tool and push the graphite back and forth until the shades are combined

  There are alternative tools to blend. For example, tissue can be used. It's commonly used only for lighter shades or else the graphite will transfer all onto the tissue just like a finger would. A Q-tip could also be used to cover large areas unless the tip is twirled to a fine point. 

   Blending for paint is a completely different story. I watched a really great video about blending acrylic paint onto a canvas. he explained what it was and how he does it. The way blending woks for acrylics is a lot of layering of the paint. Acrylics dry quickly, so using a damp brush would work perfectly to applying the paint, Applying the 1st layer would turn out transparent so it's recommended to put a second layer to make sure the paint can look opaque. The paint left on the brush can also be used for scumbling which is moving the brush in circles constantly to create a dry effect. It's commonly used for clouds and other types of fluffy strokes. Blending can also occur with scumbling by creating the effect on wet paint. 

  While the paint is still wet, apply the paintbrush (with remaining paint still from previous color) with white paint. It's okay to clean the brush off from the previous color, but it's recommended to leave the previous color on to create a lighter shade using the same color. You want to make sure that when blending the colors together, the paint is still wet. If not, then wet the paintbrush slightly and continue.

   Blending can occur by just softening the edges of the paint. But the description above can help with blending two different colors together, 

   Painting might be a bit harder because it's unable to go back but it's still fun to try it out and practice. Practice is key when becoming better. Not only have I learned more about blending with both drawings and paintings, I hope you have too. I can't wait to try it out on my next piece!