The mixer brush

Evening all. I've been abusing Blogger ever so slightly as of late. Art dumping, I think is the term. So, apologies. I thought I'd go over a little what I've been posting and how I've been producing it to whomever is curious. Everything I've put up in the past week has been a study of sorts. I've used reference for everything because there isn't going to be any point of which I won't have access to reference. I may as well use everything that's helpful. Anyway, I'm going to talk about the mixer brush. Imagine you're using charcoal, a stick of charcoal. You press down and it's black. It's never going to be anything other than black unless you smudge it. Now it's grey. That's literally all the mixer brush does. Like so.

I think her face is going to have shadows here and here. Big blob of black commence. Mixer brush.

So I've essentially rubbed my finger across it.

Rinse and repeat until you get something vaguely familiar. 

It gives you soft shadows quickly. Less work involved. Of course now you've got to put the hard edges in again but that's effortless compared to rendering soft light over someone's skin. That's all I've got for now. Have a lovely Christmas.