Is it ok to smudge??

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Is it ok to smudge in drawings when you draw like in pastels, pencils, charcoal, etc, etc. Because I heard it's better to not smudge and try to make the details without smudging but I just wanted to know, is it really not ok??

i always blended when drawing in pencil, and all others i saw did it too.

if by 'smudge' you mean using your finger to blend, i see why some wouldn't recommend it because of oils in your finger, dirty hands, etc and recommend blending stump instead, or cotton swab even. the only pastels i use are water soluble and blend neatly.

I feel that in artistic pursuits "anything goes" to achieve the effect you want to achieve.

Having said that, I do remember my art teacher in high school being actually a bit of a nazi about smudging/blending -- at least in pencil drawing.

He insisted that crosshatching was the "proper" way to achieve a fading/blending effect, and that smudging was a lazy method, I guess to his mind.

In pastels I would have thought it's the best way as it's perfect for that medium.

I still think an artist should probably be free to do what they want and the means justifies the end. But yeah, my teacher had a bee in his bonnet about it.

Yes I smudge with my fingers but it's ok to me lol


someone also once told me that in places where they teach art if they saw smudging they would tear the paper for you

same for me. one idea might be to try drawing (roughly) from left to right if you're doing something big-ish, so if you're like me and you tend to rest/drag your hand/wrist on the paper, you won't have your hand accidentally smudge what you already drew. or put paper or some surface under it? or lift it off completely.

I put a paper under my hands so it wouldn't smudge but it sometimes does smudge even if there's a paper because the paper would be moving whenever I'm moving my hands or it would print what it got on it, so I have to be very careful on where to put my hands or what position it should be, I tried doing the lifting it up thing but it's tiring somehow lol

I always use a cotton stick to smudge.

Anyway, whether you want to smudge yourself is totally up to you. So there's nothing to worry about.

Smudge if you want to, art is just another method of personal expression. Its a process not a product and there isn't a right/wrong way to communicate using this medium, unless you are entering your creations into a technical exam, if not then it really is your specifications that dictate what you can/can't do.
Sometimes I use some hairspray to reduce unintended smudging.

true, paper isn't then the best idea since it tends to smudge also. i saw a suggestion on another site about using something like a small metal lid? i've been drawing in pen more, recently, so i've been managing to avoid those problems.



works nicely. there's tailor made products with similar or more permanent effects, fixatives, which often are highly toxic, and spraying them inside the studio here is a good way to signal that you want to get jumped. there's workable fixatives if you want to add onto it after setting it. i made a landscape of my old middle school in charcoal once (reduction) as an assignment, i forgot to use the stuff and when i got it back last week, it was effectively ruined and wiped.

I thought smudging in art 'rules' and basics was wrong because someone told me that

I use hairspray after I finish so the drawing won't smudge

Metal lid umm I never tried it
I use pens too but I'm sometimes clumsy that I smudge the ink by accident

I took a drawing course last quarter, and my professor actually advocated finger-smudging while we were working with charcoal. As I understand it, it's a perfectly viable tactic - you just need to know what you're doing, and what you want.