Ok, so after my drawing of ‘Brian Hazzard’ (my Brother in Law) – I decided to research in to this Shading of skin tones.

I got myself some new art tools, got some blending stumps and tortillions (after failure at making my own)

If any of you are wondering ‘what is a tortillion and blending stump!’ well I was wondering the same. On deviant art I kept seeing fellow artists saying “used tortillion” and this left me scratching my head so I used trusty google and found out.

A tortillion is a tightly roled pieces of paper, and you rub it against your pencil marks to smudge it, this is how they get their flesh tones! WOW how come with years in college no teacher showed me this?

I did the below drawing using a home made tortillion, it was not a geat one lol – so after this drawing I purchased some decent one.

This is Seychelle Gabriel, an actress from the movie ‘Last Air Bender’ – decided to draw someone famous as I will not draw family again un till my skills have improved!

After many years not doing what I really love, I have decided to return to art. I miss it very much and it is something I believe I can be good at. If I do not spend my life doing art then it is a waste of a life.

I have not been very active in art since about 2003 when I started looking for different jobs to earn money. I have tried getting in to IT and gained Professional status, I have been a Quality Professional in Manufacturing areas & Distribution (ISO9001 etc) – It is hard to find the time for Arts when studying other subjects and working every day.

I have studied and gained extensive qualifications in various areas since leaving art college, but I am not passionate about any of them like I am about Art. I always felt a burning desire I should be doing something else in life.

So to start me off I decided to draw my Brother in Law ‘Brian Hazzard’ 🙂 – and I am wondering, how do some of these artists do their shading of skin tones? – because I can not do it! I make people look old lol – no matter how hard I am trying. I will do some research in to this for sure!

So here is my first drawing in a few years, took a few hours to do 😉 – tbh I was pleased with it!