Last night's class was all about light and shade. The room was slightly dimmer than usual and the teacher used two bright lamps to create strong areas of light and shade on the model, Leo.
I did this first one with charcoal pencils, which I hadn't used much before but I really like them. For someone like me who gets herself covered from head to toe with charcoal when using the uncompressed sticks, they're a great idea!
This next one was a bit different. While we were drawing, the teacher prepared a piece of paper for each of us by covering it with charcoal and then brushing the surface with a household paintbrush to create an even tone. Then we were to "draw" the basic shape of the model using a putty rubber to remove the charcoal and leave light areas, and then add the detail back in with more charcoal. The vertical lines are from scratches on the drawing board underneath.
I loved this technique. It's easier to start drawing when the paper isn't bright white, for some reason. I love the drawing (and I don't say that about my work very often) but I think it's more because I enjoyed doing it so much than because I like the end result. When we'd finished, the teacher picked out my drawing to talk about and said some very nice things about it :-) Throughout school, I don't think I ever had an art teacher say anything nice about something I had done. I felt like a five year old being given a gold star, I was so pleased! And I did get myself covered in charcoal, including my trousers and the entire left side of my face.
Here's a bonus sketch of our Elvis. This only took a minute, I was on my way out to class, but he looked so cute I had to grab an envelope and do a quick doodle.
I did this first one with charcoal pencils, which I hadn't used much before but I really like them. For someone like me who gets herself covered from head to toe with charcoal when using the uncompressed sticks, they're a great idea!
This next one was a bit different. While we were drawing, the teacher prepared a piece of paper for each of us by covering it with charcoal and then brushing the surface with a household paintbrush to create an even tone. Then we were to "draw" the basic shape of the model using a putty rubber to remove the charcoal and leave light areas, and then add the detail back in with more charcoal. The vertical lines are from scratches on the drawing board underneath.
I loved this technique. It's easier to start drawing when the paper isn't bright white, for some reason. I love the drawing (and I don't say that about my work very often) but I think it's more because I enjoyed doing it so much than because I like the end result. When we'd finished, the teacher picked out my drawing to talk about and said some very nice things about it :-) Throughout school, I don't think I ever had an art teacher say anything nice about something I had done. I felt like a five year old being given a gold star, I was so pleased! And I did get myself covered in charcoal, including my trousers and the entire left side of my face.
Here's a bonus sketch of our Elvis. This only took a minute, I was on my way out to class, but he looked so cute I had to grab an envelope and do a quick doodle.
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