What grade of pencil should I use for the skin tones? Did this question ever pop up in your mind when you’re about to fill your drawing with graphite? Don’t worry I’ll make things easy for you.
Choosing the right grades of pencil especially for the skin tones can be quite daunting for beginners. There are so many skin colors from light to dark, each having dozens of further tones. So here’s the most effective way of selecting the perfect shade for any reference photo.
Develop a Graphite Scale
Starting from the lightest to darkest grade of graphite, make a graphite scale, sampling all of them on a separate piece of paper. In the picture below I chose 2H, HB and 2B graphite pencils as these are the grades that I mostly use for the skin tones in my drawing.
Match the Grade scale with your reference photo
Now all you have to do is put your grade scale beside the reference photo and pick the shades that match the skin tone in the picture. Now pick your pencils and get started.
Base layer: I always apply a uniform base layer before going into more depth with the shading. I used a 2H pencil for my base layer.
Shadows: For the shadows I used the HB and 2B pencils as they are the darker regions (jaw line, corner of the eye, around the nose). In some places I used even darker shades like 4B or 9B pencil for areas like eyelashes, under eye shadow etc.
Highlights: For the highlights you can either make use of negative space or use a whitening tool. I personally incorporate both of the techniques in my drawing. I made use of the spaces where I didn’t apply graphite shade at all like the prominent highlight on the nose. While I made use of a white jelly roll pen for some sharp highlights like the one in the eye.
I hope it helps you choose the right grades according to your reference photo and improve your shading skills as well. Head over to my Youtube channel for more helpful tutorials.
