Art journal..

Well I really haven't drawn that much, or when I do I normally don't finish them(I get bored/annoyed/ discouraged and then quit). I'm trying really hard to try 100% at everything I start! I finished a drawing yesterday for my class at school, and even though I messed up the proportions a bit I still finished it.. which is a huge accomplishment!
SO.. I drew a friends foal!
If you guys have any critiques, I would really appreciate it! :)





(my scanner takes forever and it was late so I just stopped it at halfway done :P )

Do you smudge your stuff to blend it??

Yeah
I normally just use a tissue to do it.. that's how I was taught!

It's Stella like mine

It's good Jordan! A couple of tips... I know at school they teach you to smudge graphite to blend it, but don't!! You'll make it look much more striking if you just work it all with your pencil, and only to very slight touch ups with a tissue.
To make it stand out more, you need to have 'tonal values' in there. 10 is the darkest, one is the lightest. So 10 is black, 1 is white. You need to have 10 spread evenly over the drawing, and 1 spread evenly over it usually alongside 10. So put a 10 in the lower bits of the forelock where it starts growing from the head, 10 in the eyes, 10 in the middle of the ears, 10 in the nostrils and a little in the mouth, and a smidgen under the jaw for the shadow. Then 1's for all the highlights. Work around those two values and your drawing will be drawn right off the page ;)

Interesting about the smudging...I use q-tips, cotton balls and these little blending tip thingies I find at the art store for the early stages of my graphite drawings. Then I go back and put in the sharper shadows and lines after I have done the smudging. I might take an eraser to some of the highlighted areas as needed. Might be why I can work more quickly than say you (Kayty) and Toadflax. I can't imagine spending the time ya'll do on your drawings. I don't know if it's a form of cheating per say, but hey, I guess as long as the client is happy right? Lol. But yeah, I rarely leave a drawing just blended without doing sharper touch ups. I used to blend "everything"

Anyway, back to the drawing posted here. Congrats on finally finishing a piece, but I agree it could use just that extra step of adding in the darker tones to really make it pop.

Thanks for the tips guys
I have two other drawings started at school(one being a "four square"- Charcoal, pencil, pointillism{hate lol}and colored pencil) and the other being another pencil drawing!
I will get pictures of them when they are done :)