I had some fun using charcoal on a wood panel. I primed it first and then sprayed Spectrafix Final Fixative on it at the end. The reference photo is one I used before for my first (and so far only) oil painting. The wood grain really plays a role in the charcoal version, and with my next one, I’ll take it into account when planning.
Every so often I rediscover a medium I was once fascinated with. This time, it’s charcoal. I splurged and bought Nitram charcoal to add to my collection of vine charcoal and compressed pencils. It’s nice–I think it’s a bit more solid than vine and not quite as hard as compressed. I also bought a wonderful book of prints, A Treasury of American Prints (1939), edited by Thomas Craven, with the idea of copying a wide range of styles using ink, graphite, or charcoal. Here’s a first one of an Edward Hopper print called East Side Interior.
9″x12″, charcoal and white chalk on Stonehenge Kraft Paper
I also completed a Khadi sketchbook with these three charcoal flower sketches. I started thinking about charcoal and the wonderful moodiness of it after I re-watched an inspiring interview/demo with artist Kathleen Speranza. She paints a lot of roses, using graphite sketches for structure and charcoal for more of the feeling. Both are in preparation for the painting, so her sketches aren’t complete and yet they’re stunning. My attempts are a bit clunky, but I think I”m settling into a new way of using charcoal where I don’t ask it to be a sharp, graphite pencil and I’m happy that it isn’t paint. I’ve been spraying all of these with Spectrafix to keep smudging at bay.
My goal was to represent the glass of this paperweight pear, but I don’t think I quite succeeded. I truly enjoyed the effort, though. I started with the sketch and followed with an Ampersand Claybord and Ceracolor beeswax paints.
I started a small sketchbook (Hahnemuhle Nostalgie) to practice pen and ink drawings by the legendary illustrator Franklin Booth. He was a master of linework and drawing, and I hope to gain some skills by imitation. Instead of a dip pen, though, I’ll use my Lumos Pro and Lumos Duo refillable felt tip pens by Tom’s Studio as well as my trusty Indigraph. Booth probably worked much larger than the printed image, so I’m either picking illustrations I can simplify or only doing a small selection. I’ve struggled with the darkest areas, so I know I’ll learn a lot if I stick with this.
