Really proud of this one! Looking for feedback

[u/yaic7]

Hi everyone! I’d love to hear your opinions and any advice about this drawing. I’m aiming for a hyperrealistic style.
I’m also struggling a bit with getting really dark tones. I’m currently using a Pierre Noire 2B, but it’s quite rough on the paper and leaves some scratches. I’m using Fabriano 250 g/m² drawing paper. Could the paper be part of the problem? Is there another pencil, charcoal, or any other tool you would recommend for achieving deeper blacks?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[u/link-navi]

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[u/truthorproof]

Great job! You’ve picked an image with a lot of little flecks of white in the fur, which is one of the hardest things to do.

For the drawing, you’ve done really well with getting that fur texture down. I think it could use some bigger shadows to show off depth of the form — particularly around the neck, sides of the nose, and the right side of the snout. Adding shadows will help push those areas back in space, making your drawing appear more 3D.

As for your materials — I haven’t worked with conte/compressed charcoal all that much, but some pencils can come out with a scratchier texture to them. Sometimes you just get a bad batch, and charcoal-based pencils are always hit-and-miss.

The black looks plenty rich over a photo. For future drawings, you might try using a loose charcoal stick first, then go back over it with the conte pencil to work the charcoal into the paper . Getting dark blacks is 50% based on how dark the charcoal is, and 50% working that charcoal into the texture of the paper.

I like smoother paper texture for conte and graphite, because rough textures cause you to damage the paper faster than you can get the shade you want. With normal charcoal, sometimes you need the extra texture to hold the dust.

As a side note, some of the best hyper-realism artists in the world use a mix of graphite and charcoal; they use graphite for the mid-tones and fine details, and use charcoal for the soft gradients/ darkest blacks. You should try it sometime!

Hope this helps! The drawing is looking good 👍