I love drawing with graphite. Nothing beats the control and precision offered by a sharp graphite pencil.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s one thing I hate<\/em> about graphite: it gets \u201cshiny\u201d if you\u2019re not really careful, and shiny drawings are ugly.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t know what I mean by \u201cshiny\u201d, grab a soft graphite pencil and a piece of paper. Fill a half-inch square on the page with the darkest value you can. Press\u00a0hard<\/em> with the pencil while you draw. Now look at the page from different angles. Depending on your angle of view, the square may seem inky dark, or silvery-grey, depending on how it catches the light. This is the dreaded \u201cgraphite shine\u201d.<\/p>\n What\u2019s happened here is that you\u2019ve basically buffed-up the surface of the graphite under all that back-and-forth pressure with the pencil. This makes the surface of a drawing smooth and reflective, which produces glare and causes dark areas to appear light, effectively ruining the appearance of a drawing. This capacity to be polished is a natural characteristic of graphite \u2013 which is why some artists choose to avoid the material altogether.<\/p>\n There are ways to prevent your pencil drawings from getting too shiny, but they take some planning. To get started, you need to be aware of what\u2019s actually causing the problem.<\/p>\n The first thing to understand is that it\u2019s not graphite itself that\u2019s causing the problem. I frequently use graphite powder in my drawings, available by the jar, and it\u2019s completely matte on the page.<\/p>\n The problem with graphite is that it can be polished,\u00a0like silver. The process is called \u201cburnishing\u201d and it seems that the pencil point itself is a very effective burnishing tool \u2013\u00a0the back-and-forth motion of the pencil on the page will buff-up your drawing to a mirror shine, and flatten the “tooth” of the paper at the same time. The harder you press with the\u00a0pencil, and the more you scrub back-and-forth with it while drawing, the smoother and shinier your graphite passages\u00a0will become.<\/p>\n In my experience, there are only 3 ways to prevent your pencil drawings from becoming burnished:<\/p>\n Let’s take these one at a time:<\/p>\n This may sound strange \u2013 aren\u2019t we drawing with graphite pencils, after all? Well, yes and no.<\/p>\n In general, graphite pencils are available in two varieties: H’s and B’s. H pencils are harder and thus draw more lightly. B pencils are softer and thus draw more darkly.\u00a0But graphite isn\u2019t the only ingredient in pencil leads.<\/p>\n Graphite itself is a soft substance, so a very soft lead \u2013 like you\u2019d find in a 6B pencil, for example \u2013 actually contains a high proportion of pure graphite. Harder leads \u2013 like you\u2019d find in a 6H pencil \u2013\u00a0are harder because of the addition of clay. In other words, H pencils contain more clay and less graphite than B pencils.<\/p>\n Since graphite gets shiny and clay doesn\u2019t, defaulting to harder leads is one way to limit burnishing in our graphite drawings. With less graphite on the page, we lessen the potential for future burnishing.<\/p>\n If we limit ourselves to hard pencils, however, we won\u2019t be able to achieve robust darks \u2013\u00a0and that\u2019s a big problem. Darker values are what make lighter values appear illuminated \u2013 we\u2019ll sacrifice the sense of light and volume in a drawing if we can\u2019t \u201cgo dark\u201d.<\/p>\n There are two solutions to this problem. We could opt for graphite powder, applied with a brush or a rag, which can achieve relatively dark values without burnishing (unless, of course, you proceed to saw on top of it with a pencil).<\/p>\nGraphite isn\u2019t shiny.<\/h2>\n
How to prevent graphite shine in a drawing.<\/h2>\n
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1) Limit the amount of graphite.<\/h2>\n
But what about darker values?<\/h3>\n