In one of my art classes, I drew a picture of Squidward. We had to use toned paper, but since I had none, I used the back of my paper pad, the cardboard, and finished it before class ended. Tentacles 9"x12" Graphite/Charcoal
Really? I always found it kinda of hard to get really dark shades with graphite. Did you use pencils. An Ebony graphic pencil maybe? I like ebony for darker shades.
In person the graphite appears less black, and reflective, but that's how the scanner read the image. I would use an Ebony, but I feel like they are a bitch to use with other graphite pencils. I worked all the blacks with a 6B pencil
I did it the easy way, though. I printed and transferred the drawing directly onto the cardboard (via graphite) and just put the shades and highlights in the correct spots, and blended them appropriately.