A Sketch and a Drawing

I felt like putting up some drawings on the blog today, and found these two. I haven't shown the complete work in either case.  The first is a section of a full life drawing and the other, a close-up of a charcoal portrait of no particular distinction.  In the latter, I rather liked the transformation of the original drawing by getting up close and personal and in the end, the close up can almost not be recognised as fragment of the original. That's photography for you. More drawings to come in the next few days I hope.

Close-Up - Life Drawing - Pencil on Cartridge Paper

Close-Up - Portrait - Charcoal on Cartridge Paper

Life Drawing Class...It's Been Ages

It's been years since my last life drawing class and it shows!  However, it was great to get the charcoal scratching along the paper and to let go.  This was a 15 minute pose and I didn't have much time to correct anything but the model thought it good enough to photograph for her portfolio.  More next week, I hope.

Life Drawing Class 1.

Charcoal on A2 Cartridge Paper

Charcoal Portrait - Melancholy Series

I haven't posted any work for ages and the reasons are too boring to write about but I have been mulling over and experimenting with the seductive medium of charcoal recently. Unfortunately the paper I am using is not fine enough to hold the fine cross-hatching but I am not running out to the art materials store like I usually do when something isn't quite right. The photography seems to have picked up some blotchy bits which are not apparent in the original even though I didn't use any flash photography.

"Portait - Melancholy Series"

Charcoal on Cartridge Paper - 16.5" x 13" (Approx.)

City Squared 1.

I am hoping to paint some cityscapes shortly but I want to do quite a few sketches of favourite scenes before I start painting. I am finding that sketching the scene before I paint is a very good exercise for me even though it drives me mad as I am so impatient. All I wanted to do here was investigate the values, perspective and composition, and also to see whether the charcoal I have can 'handle' small works. Well it can't really and I couldn't get in the finer details so I stopped trying. I am going to buy a professional brand in a few weeks' time, the kind one sharpens with sandpaper.  That should be fun.  I had hoped to put in more of the details of the cathedral but that just proved impossible.

"St Paul's Cathedral"

 8" x 8.5" (Approx.) Charcoal on Cartridge Paper