Back to Charcoal Basics

 

approx.9' x 12"charcoal on drawing paper.

For the last couple of weeks I've been doing some drawing practice with old charcoal sticks I've barely touched in 40 years.  I thought I'd share this one because as I was drawing I remembered how nice it had been to work on hand-toned paper. 

I did this version first:

All well and good practice, but it was at the end of this piece that I remembered how I used to tone paper first and then do a lot of the drawing with the eraser. 

First 2 steps: 

- a light covering of charcoal (above)

- then blend it all by rubbing in circles with a paper towel, until you have a smooth gray surface.

Using a kneadable eraser, a harder plastic eraser, a charcoal pencil and a blending stump, I began getting the figure placed.

 

- nearly there and down to last details and heavier erasing.

The supplies I used - moving from upper left and clockwise: A couple charcoal sticks, kneadable erasers (for lifting color in a more subtle way), a few different plastic erasers including 2 with tiny heads that I just purchased (yay! new toys!) that are great for detail, two different types of charcoal pencil and lastly, the blending stump. I end up doing a lot of drawing with the blending sump when it gets dirty! Also, the more you can stop yourself from using your fingers to blend, the better. Our fingers have oils that can ruin a good drawing. Case in point - those two weird splotches in the bottom left of the drawing. I must have been holding the paper there or something. I'm not sure how they happened but there's no getting rid of them. 

I also want to note that the image (because it is only for practice purposes) came from an online google search of seated female figures.

Many years ago I had privilege of attending an author's night at a local café and listening to a presentation by the late Floyd Cooper. He was a children's book author and illustrator and he shared with us one of his tricks to making his illustrations so beautiful. He would tone a canvas with a light layer of oil paint, and while it was still wet would begin using a kneadable eraser to lift off color, acheiving that beautiful gradation of light and shadow and bringing form instantly to the canvas. 

This is one of his book covers that I believes shows this very technique.

Thanks so much for stopping by!