Ruby2

Jimmie Arroyo · 11-16-2003, 02:25 AM

Hello all,
This is a recently finished piece of the same girl Ruby, that I posted not too long ago. It's about 10x16, graphite/white charcoal highlights on gray paper(do not know the brand name). Due to my limited digital photography experience, I had to play with the pic a bit on Photoshop to try to achieve the proper contrast. What resulted instead is the whites appearing a bit brighter and having a bluish tint. My apologies. If I hadn't played with the pic, it would have been very light overall. Oh yeah, because it has been mentioned recently, it's done on the smooth side. Thanks for looking.

Michele Rushworth · 11-17-2003, 10:17 PM

This is my favorite of yours so far!

Jimmie Arroyo · 11-18-2003, 04:28 PM

Thank you Michele,
I was able to get a better picture in terms of accuracy in color and contrast. The bluish tint is gone, and the closeup is the closest example to what the original looks like.

Jimmie Arroyo · 11-18-2003, 04:30 PM

Closeup

Patricia Joyce · 11-20-2003, 03:38 PM

Jimmie,
Was this portrait done without any stumping? Your transitions are so subtle. It's a beautiful drawing, as all of yours are.

Can I ask how many hours you put into this piece?
What brand of graphite pencils do you use? Do you sharpen your pencils with a sharpener, a knife/razor, or sand paper? I know Anthony Ryder lines up NUMEROUS sharpened pencils so that he doesn't have to stop just to sharpen. And I have read that students at different ateliers are taught to sharpen their pencils into very long points, I suppose, with a special knife/razor's edge. I am incessantly in search of a better way to sharpen my pencils.
Thanks
Patty

Jimmie Arroyo · 11-21-2003, 11:52 AM

Patricia, thank you.
I don't use any blending techniques when it comes to graphite work. The look on this piece was due to the paper which is rougher than what I usually use. The majority of my graphite is done on Stonehenge paper, this one is from sheets I have laying around so I don't know the brand name, but I'm pretty sure it's charcoal paper you can find in a pad.

This piece was only about 12-15 hours, as my other graphite work runs between 25-40 hours, breaks inbetween. I have a few different brands, Derwent, Sanford, Kohinoor, the Kohinoor are woodless which I like the most but only come in even # B's, no hard ones. I use an electric pencil sharpener which works fine for me. Is the purpose of the long points for using the sides of them? If so, I don't do that either, instead the point but at a slight angle, as to not use the exact point because I have noticed, especially with the harder pencils, that using the point sometimes damages the paper by leaving grooves. I have seen work before where the grooves were made intentionally so they will leave a highlight when gone over with a soft pencil. I also like to look at my work time to time, so having all my pencils sharpened before hand would'nt make any sense for me. But if Ryder sharpens by hand, I guess that would be time consuming process.

Thanks.

Patricia Joyce · 11-21-2003, 12:33 PM

Thanks for responding Jimmie. I usually use Derwent and have never seen Sanford or Kohimoor. A fellow art student gave me a woodless graphite, 8B he bought in France that was awesome, nice heavy pencil and rich, smooth lines, that I have never been able to match with Derwent. It didn't have a name on it and he couldn't remember. Maybe I'll search online for Kohimoor or Sanford and give them a try.

I use an electric sharpener usually but mine recently broke - Christmas wish list to my kids!! I'm not sure why the atelier students use long pencils.

Happy drawing over the weekend, Jimmie...
Patty