On shading

[honeydew289]

Im having trouble on my shading on my charcoal drawings, there not smooth and even. Is it just my scanner, or is there any tips to help it?
Please I would love to here from anyone!
thanks

[Chart]

Well, if you can see it on the original as well, it's definitely not your scanner
First thing I should ask, I think, is what kind of paper you use? Although I use pure graphite, I always find my shading isn't that smooth when I use different sorts of paper. Right now I use Bristol Smooth and to my opinion, it's one of the best paper to shade on smoothly

Also, I would like to know what you use to shade? I use handkerchiefs and Q-tips and they work well enough for me

[honeydew289]

Oh, im using, Jack RIcherson paper, said good for charcoal and sketching.
And latley trying out, charcoal. But my others are with a number 2 pencil.
Thanks maybe ill try the q-tips and hannkies.
Thank you

[oOXGraceXOo]

I also use q-tips and I LOVE them, it's my favorite thing to blend and shade with. Actually, most of the papers I've had that say, "good for pencil and sketching" I don't like, I think the key word here is "sketching". They're usually too rough and things just don't blend like I want them to, so I now I don't let my parents pick up paper for me and I do it myself. Paper is a huge factor in how smooth it is, I just touch it and see what feels the smoothest. *laughs* I've heard nothing but good things about Bristol board. Charcoal does tend to look pretty rough when you first put it down, but once you start blending and smoothing things out it can look very smooth, indeed. I use cotton balls for large areas, q-tips like Chart mentioned, tissues, (like you use to blow your nose with, LOL) and I just got some tortillons the other day and I'm trying them out for the first time on a commission I'm working on. They're really nice for small spaces, but I still prefer my cheap-o q-tips. Good luck!