Week 8: Focus on Charcoal

This week, we'll be devoting some time to exploring charcoal for both short and longer poses. I'd recommend bringing in as many different kinds of charcoal as you can: vine charcoal, compressed charcoal and charcoal pencils. Below are some examples of charcoal rendering for short and longer poses, as well as longer, more refined studies.

For shorter poses, the image below demonstrates the process of blocking in your gesture and building upon it, using the side of your charcoal to carve large chunks of tone and build up your drawing. The most critical elements are a solid gesture foundation, and then blocking in your darkest values and building them up as you work.



The next two images demonstrate how charcoal can be used for longer studies, say 15-30 minutes. Notice that there is still a solid geometric construction, that all parts of the figure have been well analyzed so that modeling the form with tone is easier to execute, You can still see the rough, loose lines from the gesture. Using a light touch at the initial drawing stage will help keep your image from getting to dark too quickly.


This next image is a very polished, beautiful rendered copy of a sculpture cast. Drawings like these take many hours of careful study and planning. The goal is to replicate the sculpture you are drawing as accurately as possible, relating forms and shapes into a balance tonal image.



This last image demonstrates a refined drawing from life. Again, pay close attention to the mapping of tones and how they help to create the illusion of form.



This video clip demonstrates how to sharpen your pencils for life drawing. Enjoy!