3 KEYS TO BLENDING BETTER

 Want to become a BLEND QUEEN?  You'll need these 3 things to pull it off successfully. 

Brushes Matter

You’re going to need a few brushes to pull of blending.  I use 2 as a minimum.

One to apply the paint and a blending brush to smooth it in. 

I've found that the no. of brushes you'll need depends on what medium you use. 

Acrylic  

You can pull of blending in this manner with 1 brush 

I personally prefer to use a round brush- a Watercolor round brush, almost like a "mop" brush works sooo good for blending acrylic.

Oil

Oil is trickier, but doable with at least 2 brushes.  I love to add an actual blending brush in addition to whatever I'm using, typically a flat brush.  The additional brush is fanned. 

Learn how to recognize tonal variants

This is the most crucial part of blending.  You need to become skilled at training your eye to look for variations within tones in order to pull off successful blending.  My rule – there will be at least 3 variants within the skin.  Find them and build the gradients with your paint. 

 My other rule – DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT- Use black, white, and your primary color as a method for developing your gradient tones

 

Sketch It Out

A part of blending also requires being able to build the elements to say a portrait correctly.  Where you place your nose affects how you would blend in order to push a cheek into proper position.

 Play around with this through sketching first.  The jewel of pastel or charcoal is that it allows you to smudge and mimic paint. While doing this, be sure also to use at least 3 gradients.   

 

*Bonus 

Want to learn how to efficiently choose the proper paint colors for blending?  Sure you do.  Click this video to watch how to use a tool I found years ago.

 

Link or embed Youtube video.