GRAPHITE TUTORIAL:
Elegy (stage seven & final)
With the figure finished, I moved on to the background. It was shaded very lightly with 2B and blended to smooth with 2H. The design took more pressure to make it darker, since the figure is very close to it (for distanced backgrounds I use H grades exclusively, since the farther we are from something the less distinct the detail). As a final touch, I added subtle veins on the wall in 2H to suggest marble.
In the final stage I perfected the details and went over some of the darkest areas with a 4H pencil. This smoothed the textures and made them blend into each other more smoothly. Some highlighted parts had become grimy with graphite residue despite my taking precautions, so I lightly applied a kneaded eraser to those areas.
Finally, I sprayed the finished product with a coat of fixative spray. In addition to protecting the drawing, this also brings out the shadows and smoothes them out.