[Sarah]

Hey. Its been a while since I've been on here, and since I've drawn. I have a few questions that I've always wondered though, and would love some answers / opinions.
I'll get straight into it.

First off, how do people get the reflection in the eyes, and the very light strands of hair, and the shine on the lips and nose etc..? I'm sure some will say with a 'neaded eraser' but I've tried that and don't get anywhere near the result I'd like. Little example of the shine in the eye is here ; click here. Do people maybe use a white pencil like white charcoal pencil or a prismacolour pencil to get this effect? Or maybe tinted paper? Anyways, moving on..

What is a water-based varnish pencil exactly? What does it do? And where could I purchase one?

Also, the detail some people put into drawings is crazy. I'm wondering, what pencils do you use for hyper realistic portraits ? I'm guessing you use a mechanical pencil for very detailed work ? What other tools are needed for hyper realistic portraits? I've been working in charcoal recently and I'm not a huge fan. I want to work on more cleaner, crisp, detailed work but I'm not familiar with what pencils to purchase that will help me achieve this.

Your answers/suggestions/opinions would be highly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[pencils]

I use mostly Mitsubishi or Staedtler, well sharpened pencils. I have sandpaper handy to the points sharp and always have several of the same pencil sharpened and ready, I hate having to stop and sharpen a pencil every few minutes so I just drop the dull one and pick up another. For shading I use stumps or the old Star Bucks napkins...they changed and the new ones are more like sandpaper but the old ones are very soft. You want to make something whiter? darken the area around it, that goes for reflections too, I have some very dark graphite, black in fact that I use for that...I have one that is solid graphite...it`s the same thickness as a pencil only there`s no wood, just graphite and it gets a lot of use. Water based varnish pencil...never heard of. The way I found the pencils I use was to buy a bunch of them and see which I liked best, what works for one person may not work for another so look around and find the pencils that work for you.