Charcoal study

A quick 15 min charcoal study for a painting i'm working on. After many many years, not since school really, I picked up willow charcoal again. I've found it especially useful in art class doing life work. 

I normally steer clear of this stuff as I get into such mess, but i'm finding how invaluable it can be. A bit like working with ink, with anything other than a pen, you loose a little control, you can't fiddle. I've found this way I experiment more. Working on this gave me other ideas for the bg as well. You really have a freedom with this stuff.

 Special thanks to Babasteve for the use of his photo

 

My Mum & Me....

I recently bought a small tin of Derwent Drawing pencils, having been inspired by the work of the very talented chairman of our Art Club, Ron Clarke.  I tried these out on a quick sketch of a ref photo I took at PWP.

The pencils are very soft almost like a pastel pencil, great to shade with. This was drawn on black pastel paper with white Drawing Pencil, just picking out the highlights I'd captured on the fur. I'll certainly be using these more...

Derwent Drawing Pencils....