I welcome you to join the conversation on how to go by your pencil drawing, as a beginner. I'm ready to help you out with the little I know concerning pencil portrait, don't hesitate to leave your message below.

QUESTION & ANSWERS

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Yes you can, but first of all I would like to advice  you to try as much as possible to practice always.

Constant practice they say makes man perfect. The true fact is, to master up your skill actually takes quite number of years to improve but if you want it faster, what you need to do is to find a role model to follow his/her steps or get someone to train you.

I'm a self-taught Artist have been practicing for years to get to this point without any training, you can also do same to master or get into art training.

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Well to talk of how I render female perm hair is just a simple technique

1) I first Hatch the entire portion for hair with compressed charcoal block,

2) Blend over with cotton bud or what I call  black charcoal blender.

3) shade (second layer) and blend over it again with your bristol brush to make it a smoother and to remove some small particles left after smudging 

4) create your highlights with Mono zero eraser.

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Well this is a kind of questions I receive usually from most upcoming artist.

My philosophy is the ability of being devoted in what you do. Art is time, through constant practice, patients , passion and understanding, you will achieve your goal.

No one was born perfect! We struggled to meet perfection with our desire and passion.

Never give up, it took hours, days, weeks, months even years for most of the good artist you see out there to master up . Please bare this in mind no matter how long it takes you to practice you shall become perfect someday. Have been drawing for the past 20years now, practicing on my own wasn't an easy task..but you can make it, Practice they say makes perfect.

You should also note that sometimes you need a role model to look up to or a tutor to push you forward.

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TYPES OF PENCIL:

1) Derwent pencils

2) Black lead pencils

3) Raffine marco pencils

4) Faber castell pencils

5) Staedler pencils

6) Tombow Pencils

8) Generals Charcoal pencils

9) Mechanical pencils

10) Graphite powder

11)white charcoal pencil

12)Maries Charcoal pencil

13)Conte’a Paris

14) Kimberly 9xxb pencil

BLENDING TOOLS / SMUDGING

1) Cotton

2) Foam

3) Blending stumps

4) Tissue paper

5) Toitilon

6) Chamois

7) Earbud

8) Handkerchief

9) Brush

10)charcoal foam blender

PAPER

1) canson paper

2) chromocoat paper

3) Lambeth cartridge paper

4) Ivory paper

5)Frabiano paper

6)Arches Hot pressed

7)strathmore paper 300 series Bristol smooth

8)strathmore paper 400 series medium surface

9)strathmore paper 300 series vellum smooth

10)strathmore paper 500 series mix media

ERASERS

1)Dust free eraser

2)Kneaded eraser

3)Stiff stuff eraser

4)Elastomer Mono Tombow eraser

5)Electric eraser

6)Eraser pencil /Typewriter eraser

As an artist you need to explore or try most of this tools and material before going in for more, search for what will suit your style because we all have different preferences.

HOW TO USE GRAPHITE WITH LESS SHINE/REFLECTION

1) Use pencil like fabercastell/ Derwent/ Carandanche/ steadler black pencil to reduce shine.

2) After your sketch

3) Shade the skin/face with graphite powder, add more layers to achieve dark tone.

4) Use brush/ foam or cotton to spread the powder

5) Use your soft pencil 6b and hatch at the areas that need extra dark with less pressure to avoid shine/reflection

6)Blend with tissue paper and brush

7) Use the right grade of pencils, don't use 2b and press it hard for dark shade but use 6B-12B for extra dark

.8) Use 6B-12B for the eye balls and the hair 4B for eye lashes

9)Use 6B-12B for beard

HOW TO USE CHARCOAL ONLY FOR DRAWING

1) After your sketch

2) Start shading the face with charcoal powder

3) Spread the powder with a soft brush

: Optional instead of charcoal powder you can use willow charcoal sticks to shade the face, blend with brush and blending stamp.

4) Use 4B/Medium charcoal pencils for eye lashes,eye brow.

5) Use 6B(soft) and 4B(medium) charcoal pencils for bearded

6)Use compressed charcoal block for afro hair and female hair.

7) highlights with mono zero eraser/electric eraser /pencil eraser and kneaded eraser

8) Apply fixative when done it's very necessary



1) Faber castell graphite Pencil

This pencil comes in different grades, from Grade H-8B. The H (2H,3H .....)grades are usually use for sketches and shading the light tone areas when Drawing, while the B grades (2B,3B-8B) are use for shading dark areas.

2) Generals charcoal pencil

The generals charcoal pencil is one of the best charcoal pencil many artist use and it also comes in grades (2B hard, 4B medium and 6B soft)

It's good for shading the skin and also use to create hair style, eye brows, eye lashes etc.