| 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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