Iron Chain Completed

Charcoal, carbon and graphite pencil on Vellum Bristol. 10"*6"

Tried so many different techniques in this one piece alone. The idea was to to get a realistic rusted iron chain texture. What worked eventually was, for the shadowed regions of the drawing, stippling with carbon pencil first and then with a hard charcoal pencil. Then a light blending with a brush. 

For the bright sun lite parts of the chain, a series of reverse burnishing, starting with 7H then 4H and finally 2H to get the rough texture. The white of the paper were preserved by stippling with a empty ballpoint pen before hand.