Sun sketching - tips?

[Richard N]

Limb darkening. What’s the best way to hint at this?

Faculae sketching - use a white pencil maybe? Ideas?

[SwiMatt]

2 hours ago, Richard N said:

Limb darkening. What’s the best way to hint at this?

I was wondering the same but I haven't tried yet! My first try would be to simply "paint" the limb on very light gray (like a 2H and up pencil) and then blend it with a tortillon to have a gradient. Another option could be to apply the darkening directly with the tortillon after passing it lightly in some graphite. Some of these might give an effect soft enough to represent the darkening.

I know nothing about feculae sketching, but if the book "Solar Sketching: A Comprehensive Guide to Drawing the Sun" is as good as "Sketching the Moon: An Astronomical Artist's Guide" (overlapping authors), I would definitely pick it up once I get serious with solar sketching

I hope to see some of your experiments!!!

Edited April 27 by SwiMatt

[SwiMatt]

Update, I tried applying graphite with a tortillon and then blending with fingers, I think it has a lot of potential for limb darkening. However it's difficult to control how much graphite you put on the paper, so go super light with it! In my sketches I ended up darkening parts of the limb too much!

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/421576-the-sun-on-27042024/

 

[mikeDnight]

If you  scribble some graphite pencil on a spare piece of paper, you can use a cotton bud to lift the graphite and transfer it onto the sketch. This is a great way to gradually intensify the limb darkening without leaving hard edges. If drawing the limb of the Sun, the graphite can be gently lifted using a putty rubber to produce a granulation effect and faculae.

With the planet's, the same softening can be applied to planetary limbs, polar hoods on the gas giant's, and the terminator of Venus, Mars and Mercury.

Edited April 27 by mikeDnight