Jamie Boots

Art of Texturing: Realistic Fur with Indenting and Graphite Pencil

Hi Conor, Thank-you so much for uploading your work. The picture looks incredible and I honestly cannot fault it. The texture in the fur has a real depth and random pattern to it, also the flow and direction of the fur is spot on but the eye is truly exceptional. All the striations and attention to detail gives the leopard a true character and soul. Paper does make such a difference when it comes to dark tone. The two papers I use are St Cuthberts Saunders Waterford 300g Hot Press which takes dark tone exceptionally well as well as being nice to indent. The other paper I use is Arches Aquarelle 300g Hot Press. This again is a very nice paper but it is much harder to work with and is incredibly tough which makes indenting texture a little bit more challenging. The reason why I sometimes use the Arches is because they make much larger sheets.Pencils do vary from one manufacturer to another, it's just a case of finding what works for you as everybody has different preferences. As you are using Faber Castell you could add some of the graphite matt ones of these to the range that you have but as a word of warning if you are going to do that I would suggest using the ones from B to 8B. When I tested these I personally couldn't tell any difference in darkness after the 8B and it's also worth bearing in mind that they do tend to feel different to other pencils as they don't tend to run as smooth as regular graphite.I've used the Caran d'ACHE Grafwood pencils since I think they first came out but these do tend to have a more waxier texture to them compared to other makes but as I said earlier this is purely down to personal choice.Again, thank-you for taking the class and please feel free to ask any questions as I am always glad to help. Jamie

Hi Jamie. Thank you for your lessons, I am loving using the indentation technique. I would really appreciate any feedback. I am struggling to get my dark values without having to sharpen my pencils to a sharper point. You seem to get dark values with a 4B but I&rsquo;ve had to use a 7B. I am using Faber castell pencils. I am new to graphite and this is my first attempt so I am just wondering if I should try other pencils and papers to get easier darker values, or is it a technique issue?&nbsp;

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