More Blueberries for Sal Studies



All India ink in a Khadi paper sketchbook
They’re a bit shaky (especially the car), but it’s always fun studying this picture book.
All India ink in a Khadi paper sketchbook
They’re a bit shaky (especially the car), but it’s always fun studying this picture book.
Black and white art is cool. It’s dramatic. It’s dynamic. It’s expressive. It’s also messy. But I love it.
It took numerous sketches to find a look I liked. With the Blue Jay drawings, I finally found it. I started with a very blurry vine charcoal image, blended it out with a brush, refined it with erasing, and added details with a carbon pencil. The softness comes from blending and using a touch of powdered charcoal with a brush. I use a white charcoal (chalk or pastel) pencil, too, but haven’t yet found one I like.
Sometimes I need to remind myself that a sketchbook is for practice. I sketched two monochromatic pictures to keep color choices minimal.
I practiced sketching oranges. With some, I used the chroma color first, with others a layer of white. The one I liked the best used three different but related colors that overlapped. The color was more convincing, and the texture was the best of the three (bottom right).
And apples are my favorite thing to sketch when I’m practicing.