A pencil is a rod of graphite encased in a soft wood like cedar and which has an opening at the end. A pencil basically works by pushing the lead end accross the surface of the paper and in the process, breaking up into small flakes. Pressure on the pencil pushes the flakes which automatically leaves marks on the paper.
Pencil as a meduim for drawing is so special and versatile. There is hardly a single drawing medium that can perform so many tasks as a pencil. Because it can produce lines of different widths, the same pencil can be used for shading, texture making, and emulating a wide range of tonal differences.
The first step to a successful pencil shading is to control the movement of your pencil, making sure that every mark or trace you make on the paper works towards creating the shading effect that you want. Experiment with varieties of pencils to see how they look on your paper. Try shading with hard and soft pencils as well.
There are different types of shading ranging from - hatching, cross hatching, scribles and smudging. I personally prefer the hatching method though sometimes I do work over it for cross hatching.
In this piece, after proper shading with 4b pencil, I made use of ear bud to blend my work for a smooth texture.
I overlayed another strokes with 8b pencil on the blended work to get a darker tone.
Bear in mind that every part of the face has its own tone and value. The level of your tones depend on how dark or light the area you are wonking on is. Some are mid tone, some are light tone while some are dark tone. All this require different sizes of pencil. However, the combination of all this gives rise form - which is the ultimate goal.
Thank you.
In case you missed my previous drawing of African Queen. See below:
https://steemit.com/art/@maxwellmarcusart/ballpoint-pen-on-paper-title-african-queen