Friday 4 April 2014

The Little Mermaid




How are you all doing? I have not done a really detailed graphite pencil drawing in a while. When I started to sketch out this girl I thought her hairstyle sort of leans itself to a mermaid, adding a little starfish as a hairpiece gave it that mystical flair.

I really enjoyed working in a softer pencil for this. The 6B was very easy to blend with my fingers and I found my Staedtler plastic eraser pen was very helpful with the blending. If you don't have this type of eraser yourself they are good for those finer details like adding whites to the eyes or highlights in the hair.

Since the graphite pencil was easy to smudge, a piece of paper under my hand helped to minimise this. I considered adding colour but felt in the end that it did not need it. 



I really love the monochrome look to this little mermaid and hope you do too. What graphite pencils do you prefer to work with?

Enjoy your weekend.
Until next time, Happy Creating!



8 comments:

  1. She's incandescently beautiful! I really love the starfish in her hair. Wendy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Wendy, I should have taken more photos but I got in the zone and forgot until near the end, the starfish started out a bit flat, I was happy I was able to add a bit more texture and shading to give it that touch of realism. x

      Delete
  2. she is just beautiful. I love how you do her eyes and the shading is great. I am doing lifebook 2014 and looking forward to seeing you on there in the future...!! love your style. I need to get me one of those eraser pens, it did an excellent job with the whites in the eyes. Thanks for sharing!! Jane

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much Jane, I found you still need to keep the white of the paper as clean as possible where you want the highlight parts and then use the eraser pen for blending around the edges outwards. I will also look forward to seeing you on Life Book very soon! x

      Delete
  3. This is lovely - thank you for so many great tips. I just purchased a 7B pencil . . I'll return to the art store for a 6 as well . . (oh yes, a proper eraser . . thanks!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are very welcome Maggid, happy to hear you found the blog useful. I also used a regular eraser for general clean up.

      Thanks for stopping by. x

      Delete
  4. Gorgeous! I love graphite so much and this is just stunning!
    xox,

    Ursula

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Ursula for stopping by and leaving your sweet comment. x

      Delete