Drawing – 02-02-2021

Charcoal Pencil (White and Black) on Canson Bisque

So this is actually one of my more effective styles of rendering a portrait.  Drawing on toned paper with two charcoal pencils (white and black) is something I can do pretty fast.  Much quicker than the drawings in my previous posts.  Many years ago I drew on Canson Ingres and Bisque and just found that the 3 types of tones one can get just adds a painterly feel.  I haven’t been to the art store in a while so I hope they still carry these varieties of paper for $3? each?

The highlights that I can’t get in pure white stonehenge paper is easily achieved with the soft white charcoal pencil.  Even light hatching can add a sense of form.  For hair, which as you can probably tell, is one of the main elements of all my drawings, it’s easy to get freeform organic marks that mimic the way hair flows.  This paper in real life is a bit dull and not as saturated as you see here, but that’s just what I do.  Photos of drawings from my photos, to try and show some aesthetic quality at every step.  Going back to what I mean about effective, these types of drawings only take about 2 hours at most, and it’s really engaging.  Mistakes can normally be fixed by the kneaded eraser, and the way the tones play off each other is not boring for the artist.  For figure drawing classes over the years I would often opt for this paper and media combo for the last pose/drawing of the evening.  Sometimes it would be wasted as time would expire, but if the lighting was good and contrasty and I worked fast I could get something decent.

Posted in Art and tagged , , , .