GAH! Smudging! Help.

[RD]

How the heck do you guys prevent your fingers or hands from touching the paper and smudging graphite or charcoal? I've just gotten back into experimenting with charcoal but everything I complete has little grey fingerprints on it that don't want to erase. What's the secret to clean paper, aside from not ever touching it (which I'm incapable of doing, for some reason)? Latex gloves? lol

[Laurelin]

I have a fixative I spray on every now and then- particularly if I've finished an area. cover up the rest of the picture then spray the area you want. Also, I use the simple, yet effective, put a blank piece of printing paper under my hand method. That works as well.

You'd think I'd learn to shade from left to right, but alas, it never fails that I finish the right side first.

[RD]

Me too, Laurelin. I'm actually forcing myself to sketch from left to right now, including drawing animals facing right. Much harder than it seems, for some reason.

[noludoru]

I go from top left to bottom right. Also use the paper trick. Sometimes I lift my hand off of the paper, but I can't do that accurately for very long and my hand gets tired.