are you drawing scientific really grainy
and you're not quite sure how to blend
them out and go from something like this
to something a lot smoother like this so
if you guys are struggling with blending
your graphite pencils then today I'm
going to show you guys four different
ways that you can blend your graphite
pencils using really cheap objects and
things that you might not think you can
blend graphite pencils with to get
really really smooth results but let's
get straight into the first way to
actually blend your graphite pencils and
this method is probably the most common
that one that you've probably heard of
before and that is using blending stumps
so what our blending stumps well what
they are are basically rolled up
compressed paper as you'll see here and
what that means is it makes it really
easy and really useful and suitable to
blend graphite pencils and so here you
can see I've got my ball of grepher I
just shaded it in with a 4b pencil and
an 8b pencil and what I'm gonna do first
is just take the blending stump and
lightly sweep it around the outside of
the ball to actually blend in so I just
start at one point and sweep to the
other side I don't then go back and
forth I just sweep from one side to the
other another technique you can use is
circular motion as you can see here I am
using little circles you could use a
bigger blending stumps in this if you
wanted to normally the bigger the area
I'm actually blending out the bigger the
blending stump so I'm just gonna go
ahead now and actually blend the rest of
this out with this same technique as you
can see that is a lot softer and now I
want to show you a way that you really
shouldn't blend it out and a way that
will lead you to having messy dirty
results and so what I'm gonna do is just
shade a bit of the 4b pencil to the side
of the circle here and so I'm going to
go in with the blending stump and what
you shouldn't do is do this go back and
forth because what back and forth for
blending does even though it makes it
softer and it does work it means
around the edge where you've stopped
each little sort of stroke with the
blending stuff it gives you these little
darker lines these little bits which are
the start and stop points so it's not
smooth because imagine if you were
blending skin using this method and you
were going back and forth on the skin
you don't want to have loads of these
little lines where you start and stops
doing each little stroke with the
blending stump so make sure that you
don't do that what you should do is
start one inch and go to the other edge
and then go back to the start not go
back and forth or go in circular motions
so that is how I like to use a blending
stuff to actually blend my graphite
pencil and so the main things that I
actually like to use blending stumps for
are the little details because of the
fact that you can get them in different
sizes you can get really really tiny
blending stumps that are really small
for those tiny little details and then
you can get them much of a larger
brending strips which are more suitable
for large areas I'll leave links in the
description to all of the materials that
I'm talking about are the ones that need
to be linked like the next one doesn't
need to be linked is tissue but for
things like this you can definitely
check them out in the description so
area guys let's get on to the second
method which is using tissue and tissue
is a great way to blend graphite pencil
particularly because it's such an easy
thing to get hold of you have a lot of
it around the house but there is a
certain type of tissue that I do
recommend like if you get better results
with really soft you know like out of
the box like tissue box tissues then
like toilet roll or general kitchen
tunnels which have a lot of texture so
when you're picking your tissues look
for something that's super smooth
doesn't have any texture any bumps any
patterns on it I have got my lovely soft
tissue here and one thing that you don't
want to do is go in with this large
tissue and just start wiping it around
and blending it without thinking about
how you're gonna control the tissue it's
such a large area if you aren't careful
you'll just end up smudging all of the
graphite all around the circle and not
actually being able to control it and
keep it in the sort of guidelines that
you're trying to blend the areas you're
trying to blend so what I'm gonna do is
use part of this issue wrap it around my
finger so I just have the tissue on my
finger and use this to blend and then I
keep the rest in the palm of my hand so
it doesn't accidentally wipe everywhere
and so what I'm going to do is just take
my finger and again go in circular
motions and this is a really quick
method but as you get to the edges be a
bit more careful it does lighten up the
graphite a bit though because as you can
see a bit of the graphite does transfer
onto the actual tissue so here's the
finished result and again it's an
amazing method for blending the graphite
that's how I like to use tissue to blend
my graphite and the main things that I
love using tissue for are those larger
areas because it's it is like you can
control it but it's easier for larger
areas I wouldn't use it for really tiny
details that's better to use like the
blending stump or one of our future
methods but tissue is really good for
those large areas you just want to get
nice and smooth and so the main thing
that I actually use tissue for is skin
I'll use it all of the time for skin and
for soft backgrounds so if I shade a lot
of pencil on the background and I just
need to blend it out then using that
soft tissue really really works
our next method is again something you
probably have around the house and that
is cotton buds or q-tips if that's how
you know them and again these are really
really good because they are cheap and
because they have that like cotton end
to them and they're really small it
means they are perfect for blending
graphite so again let's see them in
action
but what I'm gonna do now is basically
the key to all of these ways to blend is
use small circular motions so I'm just
gonna go in very gently with all of
these you don't actually need to apply a
lot of pressure at all just very very
soft and use those circular motions just
to sweep over the graphite once again
I'm going to use this exact same
technique throughout the whole of this
circle until it is completely blended
out when you're blending is good to go
in lots of different directions as well
so for example if you blend using your
circular motions in this direction it
can be helpful to go in the opposite
direction once you
going vertically for example just go
horizontally and this will help give it
a really smooth look because you're
blending from lots of different angles
but that is the finish result for this
blending technique okay so that's how I
use them but what do I use combats for
well I use them pretty much this for the
same things as I use the blending stumps
for so you can use either one of these
to get similar effects but the cotton
buds are mainly good for detailed things
I wouldn't use a tiny cotton bud to
blend a whole large area that would it
be very efficient especially when you
can just easily blend it with a tissue
and so I like to use something like a
blending stump or a cotton bud a smaller
sort of blending utensil utensil product
material told a small blending tool with
a larger one like a tissue to cover all
of the possible needs that I might need
it for and our last method for blending
graphite is actually one that you
probably haven't heard of I mean is a
really common art supply material but a
lot of you might not have thought of
using it to actually blend graphite as
well and that is a paint brush paint
brushes can be used to blend graphite
and they're actually really really
effective and can be used to get some
really soft smooth results so I
definitely recommend giving it a try the
brushes I normally use
are normally the filbert ones the ones
that are compacts and slightly flatter
and firmer not the really really fluffy
ones I find that the filbert ones give a
much better blending and they give much
smoother results and once again let me
show you guys how I use the paint brush
to actually blend some graphite and so
with the brush what I'm doing is I am
again gonna go in little circles or
sweep it down that might be a better way
so this is the final look for the circle
as you can see it's really nice and
smooth and what's also good about this
technique is you don't have to just use
the brush to blend already-existing like
graphite that's on the paper you can
actually say put a bit of graphite
pencil on a scrap piece of paper rub the
paintbrush in that so that it gets lots
of graphite residue on the brush and
then actually just use the brush to
paint on some really light values and
you can actually just paint all
the graph right directly on to the paper
and as you can see it transfers the
value so you can get some really really
nice soft shading so this this sort of
blending technique is extremely
versatile and it's definitely one of my
favorites and so overall the paintbrush
is probably my favorite way to blend
graphite pencil I also do like using the
tissue for large areas I think that's
really really effective and easy to do
and I do use blending stems and actually
I do use all four of these methods in
their own way at different times so all
four of them are useful and great
methods to blend graphite
anyway guys let me know what is your
favorite method for blending graphite is
that any of these four that I've
mentioned today also what is your
favorite of the four that I've mentioned
and what is your least favorite way if
you want to see lots of real-time
tutorials make sure you check out my
patreon where you can learn to draw
realistically in color pencil
watercolors graphite all of that sort of
stuff but anyway that is it for today's
video if you did enjoy it make sure to
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this in the future but I'll see you guys
in the next one bye everybody