Robin Hood (Russell Crowe) - Portrait Tutorial - Skin Tones & Blending

Heroic outlaw in English folklore, a highly skilled archer and swordsman. Although not part of his original character, since the beginning of the 19th century he has become known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor" and became a popular folk figure in the medieval period continuing through to modern literature, films and television, portrayed in 2010 film by Russell Crowe.

Tools:
- 3H-7B, Willow Charcoal
- Kneaded Eraser, Mechanical Pen Eraser, Electric Eraser
- Blending Stump, Makeup removal discs

I've received a lot of questions about how to achieve skin tones and blending, specially using makeup removal discs. Finally, I've decided to make a small tutorial about how I do it.

I'm going to start assuming you are familiar with the different concepts of values and materials in a drawing.

- First of all, try to detect in your mind the darkest and the clearest zones of your reference and drawing, everything else will be a point in between. When I'm talking about detecting I'm in fact telling that you have to actually see and think about the lights and shadows that conform the structure , this is a more important step of your drawing than it seems.

- Try shadowing, making loose strokes starting from dark to light in the drawing zone.

- Once we have the graduation of values, we can normally see the rougher strokes of the pencil.

- Apply the makeup removal discs in direction, from darkest to clearest without fear. You are not going to achieve a perfect value and tone directly.

- Check the reference:

• If blending added too much dark to a lighter zone use carefully the kneaded eraser.
•  If you erased and added too much light in a darker zone use the blending stump or a pencil carefully in order to correct the values.
• If you want to smooth the shadowing use the makeup removal disc again. 

 At this point, you might think that you messed up the piece, don't worry take a deep breath, keep calm and don't be disappointed if the result is not exactly what you expected to be, making mistakes and finding the way to solve them is the key of learning. I've passed through that point a lot of times, congratulations you are not perfect.

- Keep doing the steps again until the piece resembles as close as possible the reference.

Take a look at the video as example so you can make a better idea, it covers the following steps for the face:

- Full value / Dark accents

- Halftones and Highlights

 

 Make sure to have the notes enabled in Youtube so you can see the tool I'm using at each moment.

Charcoal and willlow charcoal is easier and quicker to apply but more volatile if you don't use a fixative on your piece.

I'll try to explain how to apply graphite powder soon.