Charcoal drawing on Bristol board (39 x 27 cm)
Last in my series of nudes. Thought it would be fun to explore a scene with a wide tonal range but with many darks, try to explore the much darker aspect of charcoal (over my previous choice of graphite)
I think I’m sold on charcoal, the wider tonal range, the beautifully dark blacks and the lack of shine all fit into what I like and enjoy in drawing.
Charcoal drawing on bristol board (24 x 39 cm)
Drawn from reference photo ~12 hrs to complete.
For me, the lower half of this drawing is what makes it — and not just for the obvious …. well, ok, a bit for the obvious! The reflected light from the floor, the little toes and the beautiful teardrop curves all add up to a wonderful scene. The harsh top light which makes the bottom half work, also makes the top half tricky to make work.
Charcoal drawing on Bristol Board (33 x 20 cm)
Drawn from reference photo, ~ 15hrs to complete.
I decided to experiment with mixed media: there is a small amount of ink used in some of the darker shadows. When I was working with graphite, I always found the darks to be too light and so occasionally used ink to bring the blacks to a good black (but found the black ink to graphite transition quite difficult) so I thought it might be easier with charcoal given its darker blacks.
Turns out that the ink doesn’t really add to the tone, charcoal can already get very dark blacks. On the down side, the ink adds a little shine to the areas where it has been used (which wasn’t a problem with graphite, since it shines anyway, but is a major distraction with charcoal).
The only place it might be useful is in outlining since you can add a very thin ink line which cannot be erased or smudged.
Live and learn as they say…