MAKING
YOUR OWN TORTILLON 
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A
tortillon is a tightly rolled sheet of paper,
the inside of which is pushed out into a pencil
shape and used by pencil, pastel and charcoal
artists to blend and push colour around on the
drawing paper, softening edges and graduating
tones.
You may want to try experimenting with various
types of paper, the commercial tortillons that
I've come across are made from a rather loose
fibre paper, similar to thin blotting paper but
I've found that just about any paper will do.
I make mine from ordinary copy paper straight
out of my printer. Very little practice is required
to produce your own homemade tortillon.
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Take
a sheet of A4 paper and mark 1" down on one
side and 1" up on the other. Rule a pencil
line between the two points and then cut along
with scissors. You can now make 2 tortillons. |
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Starting
at the narrow end, try to roll the paper evenly
and fairly tightly, towards the wider edge.
This can be a bit of an art and does take
a little practice but they do last a long
time once they are made. They do occasionally
come to a point as you are rolling... this
is fine. |
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Once
the paper is tightly rolled, hold it firmly
and push out the centre with a very thin knitting
needle / thick wire or something similar,
to form a pencil shape. |
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You
now need to secure the paper with a small
strip of adhesive tape and trim any excess
paper from the top. |
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I
finish by roughing up the point with a piece of
medium sandpaper, this gives a softer, velvet
texture, especially if using ordinary printer
paper as I do. The sandpaper is also used to clean
the end of the tortillon. Try to use a clean one
for lighter areas of blending and darker, dirtier
ones for dark areas such as hair and deep shadows.
Use the tortillon at a slight angle to prevent
pushing the point into the body. By the way, some
nice, soft skintones can be achieved using a soft
chamois leather or ordinary kitchen / toilet tissue
over the fingertip, especially around the larger
highlights of cheekbones etc...
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