Paper Tortillions and Stumps Assorted Pack of 5

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Finger: Using your finger to blend a portrait is a big no no because the natural oils from your skin can cling onto the graphite, making the area impossible to erase. If you absolutely need to use your finger to blend, make sure to clean it very well using an oil/grease absorbing cloth/tissue.

The benefit of making your own blending tool is that you can customize the type of paper and level of softness. Makeup or Paint Brush: Good for blending light areas. My favorite brush is the S60 Flat Shader by Robert Simmons. The bristles are stiff enough that the brush doesn’t flare out too much when pressure is applied, it’s super soft and the brush’s corners are perfect for getting into tight spaces. But, if you took that piece of paper and wound it tightly, you would discover that it was much harder and more durable. Tightly winding the paper in a tortillon creates a harder object that can handle the abuse you will subject it to. How Do You Use Blending Stumps and Tortillons? A question most artists out there have asked, what is the best way to blend differing tones of graphite pencils together? I remember from a young age, trying to blend with my thumb and rubbers all creating a bold smudge effect, quite often ruining my drawing.Sanding the tips of your blending stump is also a great way to sharpen them. We all know how dull they can get after helping us with so much shading. However, this is not the case. Blending stumps have a much softer, more velvety type of surface to them when compared with tortillons. This usually gives the artist more control when blending, allowing them to achieve softer, smoother transitions in value.

Instead, you can use tortillons for larger areas, rough layouts, and initial shading. When one becomes dull or dirty, you just throw it out and grab a new one. Blending Stumps and Tortillons Will Help You to Become a Better Artist The side of a tortillon will not blend very smoothly, but it does create very interesting textures that resemble grass and brushed metal for example. Tortillons are an artist tool used for blending dry mediums. You can use tortillons to blend it, charcoal, graphite, colored pencils, or anything else. Due to how narrow the tip of a tortillon is, I would avoid using an x-acto knife with it. As you shave away the paper, it’ll be easy to weaken the tip or change its shape in a way you might not want. When is Your Tortillon too Far Gone to Save? What is the difference between a blending stump and tortillon? It all comes down to how they are made. Blending stumps are made from paper pulp and formed into a solid stump.Blending with your finger can achieve ok results, dependent on the medium used, I personally like to use my fingers when pastel blending tools too. These can help to control the medium and expand the potential for expressive mark-making. To have the biggest impact, make sure that your kneaded eraser is clean. You won’t do any good by rubbing a dirty kneaded eraser all over your dirty blending stump. Silicon colour shapers and blenders are available in different softnesses, shapes and sizes. From chisel tip to round point, and they’re capable of a wide range of effects. Makeup brushes are primarily designed for blending makeup so designed perfectly for this job. I have a few brushes for blending my drawings, from blusher brushes to eye shadow brushes and used accordingly depending on the size of the areas I need to blend. They have a really delicate touch and blend very well indeed, with a smooth consistent flow. This is particularly important on pencil portraits as they can have very delicate tones on skin. The smaller firmer brushes are also very good but the firmer the bristles of the brush the harder it will blend. I use these type of brushes for blending larger areas of my artwork, I still revert to by blending stump/totillion for the finer detail areas that need blending.