Ok, I’ve Decided To Make A Tutorial On How To Prepare These Graphite Blenders (english Is Not My First

ok, i’ve decided to make a tutorial on how to prepare these graphite blenders (english is not my first language so keep that in mind) hope i explain myself well:

i think they’re called stumps in english, whatever, the point is i’ve seen a lot of artists ditching them and recommending using q-tips instead becaue “they’re hard and don’t blend well” or using them right away, so i thought i would show you how to soften them. some of you may know this but i’m sure a lot of you don’t

step 1: buying them (i recommend getting 3, the smaller one, a medium size one and a large one)

step 2: search a hard surface (the floor is great) and get a hammer

step 3: get one stump and start hammering it, you have to hammer the whole stump but go a little bit harder on the tips

step 4: roll the stump and hammer all sides (don’t go crazy it has to stay round) it may take a while

step 5: to know when you’re done you gotta squeeze the tip, it’s gotta be soft enough to form an oval between your fingers but not flaten right away

step 6: choose the softer tip and put the stump vertical with the chosen tip up, hit the floor repeatedly to get rid of the other tip, keep doing that until the bottom is flaten, you should end up with something like this:

step 7: once you’re done, put tape around the point, right where the cone of the point starts forming

step 8: get some sandpaper and sand the tip (horizontally like in the gif), keep the sandpaper in your case because that’s how you “clean” the tip

i had these for almost 7 years (yeah i know they look nasty, art isn’t clean) 

and they work perfectly