How to make the blacks of your drawings look really black

Hello my Steemian friends!

Here is a tip to get the blacks in your drawings really black.

Most of us LOVE drawing with graphite pencils (or mechanical pencils/lead holders with graphite leads.) They are smooth, precise, clean, and deliver a great result.
However, the value range of the graphite doesn’t get to the deepest darks. The drawings with graphite always are on a gray value.

Sometimes this is not a problem, and a soft contrast may be what you are looking for. But if you want to get real blacks for a higher contrast drawing, it may be a limitation. If you use soft graphite leads, such as 4B or 6B or even 9B, and you press hard with any of them on the paper attempting to get a black, you still won’t get it. And what is worse, by putting too much pressure on the graphite, it becomes shiny and reflective, which can be annoying.

The good news is that you can mix graphite with charcoal in the same drawing. For instance, you can do most of your drawing with graphite pencils, and then use a charcoal pencil to render the real blacks. The black of charcoal is BLACK.

You can see an example of this in the photo above. First I drew the falcon with graphite pencils. I think it looks good but in a value range of light and dark grays. For the second one, I added blacks with a charcoal pencil and I integrated it with a blending stump. You can see its high contrast.

Another option is to use "carbon pencils." The lead of these is made out of a mixture of compressed graphite and charcoal powder, and therefore they feel in between the two. And they do deliver an efficient black which is not shiny.

Now, I want to give you two warning notes:

1. If you already laid down the graphite in the dark areas and pressed hard with it, the charcoal may not hold. It is better to draw with the charcoal before you push the graphite. (If the above happens, you can erase some of the graphite with a kneaded eraser.) The charcoal holds well on the graphite, if you laid it in lightly.

2. The charcoal smears a lot and can get messy. Treat it with care and when you finish your drawing, fix it with a fixative spray.

Maybe you were already using the above technique, or maybe you draw entirely with charcoal. But if not, I hope this tip was helpful to give more contrast to your work.

Good drawing!

Leonardo