Gordaen's Blog

I did two quick, rough charcoal sketches today. I was really just learning how the more expensive “artist’s charcoal” handles compared to the cheapo stuff I had used before. This new charcoal is excellent. It’s hardness is considered medium, but it’s definitely much harder than the other stuff. The sketch of the face was done with vine charcoal (dark gray) and the back was with willow charcoal (black). I’m not sure how much my scanner really picks up the difference, but it’s very obvious in person.

The face came out as well as I could expect for using a new medium in just three minutes. The back could have been better, but I started from the bottom and didn’t leave myself enough room for the arms, so I shrunk the entire top half. The proportions would be tolerable if I cut off the bottom bit of the back and shrunk the rest of the back just a bit. Oh well, what can you expect in seven minutes?