Fantasy Art School

Tortillons (Smudge Sticks)

Tortillons are rolled tubes of paper that are used to smudge drawings. This is a very useful skill and it adds quite a lot to your drawings. This smudging is a technique that many artists use.

Tortillons come in many different lengths and widths and you can buy them very cheap in art stores. Or you can make your own!

I recommend you buy or make a large selection of tortillons. They are very handy and if you work with color in your drawings you will need to be careful with them. The color and graphite is transmitted to the smudge stick so when you re-use them you stick with the same color. Another good thing about them is that all you have to do is sand them down with a little bit of sandpaper and they are cleaned off, sharpened and ready to use again.

Smudging with a Tortillon - Here is an example of how a smudge stick can add to the quality and look of your drawing. This is a closeup of the fantasy art school logo. Take a look at the body and the wing. See how the body is composed of a lot of scales? See how there are dark areas? These dark areas really add shape to the body. It makes it look round and real. The wing also has some nice smudging to show the dark areas. Also, The left side of the dragons head is darker than the right. This part of the head is slightly shadowed as if the light is coming from the right.

How to Make a tortillon (smudge stick)

Take a regular piece of drawing paper. Notebook paper works too but if you have drawing paper it is better and printer paper works really well but the drawing paper is a bit thicker and more durable. Draw a line right down it about three inches from one side. Then Cut this three inch piece right off. This piece will be your tortillon. If you want a bigger or smaller tortillon then adjust this three inches anywhere between two inches and four inches.

Now take your three inch piece and draw a line like this the cut along the line and discard the corner.

Now starting at the pointed end roll it up into a tube. It will look something like this.

Now push a wire coat hanger or similar object right into the middle of the rolled tube. This will push out the other end into a nice point.

Now wrap a layer of tape around it to hold it in place and you are done.

It may take a little bit of practice to make tortillons well but they are not that hard and you will quickly make some great ones. And it is very much worth the effort because they add a really good skill to your repertoire as an artist and your drawings will improve significantly once you start smudging.

Remember: You can use your tortillon over and over and clean it and sharpen it with a little bit of sandpaper. Me, I like to keep my tortillons full of graphite this makes the smudging easier and smoother but sometimes you have to have a very clean one for delicate work.

This is a Storm The Castle Website

Fantasy Art School HOME PAGE

Fantasy Art Lessons

1. lesson 1 - Holding the pencil and getting a feel for it and warming up with lines
2. lesson1c how to draw a straight line
3. lesson 2 - Drawing some simple geometric shapes
4. lesson 3 - Understanding and using Perspective
5. lesson 4- foreshortening in perspective
6. lesson 5- Drawing depth and distance
7. lesson 6-Using lines of varying thickness
8. lesson 7- drawing form and shape with a medieval mace
9. lesson 8- Drawing metal - We draw a medieval helmet
10. lesson 9- drawing our first human form
11. lesson 10- Distorting the human form to create fantasy creatures
12. lesson 11 - doodling and creativity break
13. lesson 12 - a Morning star mace - drawing textures
14. lesson 13 - how to draw chainmail
15. lesson 14 - How to convey action in your fantasy drawings
16. lesson 15 - How to draw sword shapes
17. lesson16 -draw an armored knight
18. lesson 17 - Draw a fantasy dagger using the Five-S method
19. lesson 18 - Creating space in your drawings - A Dragons Lair
20. lesson 19 - Practice by drawing dragons
21. Lesson 20 - Drawing from Memory
22. Lesson 21 -Draw a Catapult

Fantasy Art Lessons from Guest Artists

1. How to draw a magical genie using Corel and Photoshop

Art Books & Supplies

1. Art Kits
2. Art Books
3. Fantasy Art Books

Stormthecastle.com
Castlefiction.com
The Telescope Nerd
Epic Fantasy.com
The Medieval Armory
THe Fantasy Guide
The Heroic Dreams Blog Knight-Medieval.com willkalif.com
make-video-games.com

---------
All Materials, unless otherwise stated are Copyright©
Kalif Publishing and StormtheCastle.com check out my copyright page for information about how to use any work on this site

If you have questions
or would like to
contribute you can contact me as customer support

---------