General Drawing: Using charcoal

Throughout this entire project, when I drew the drawings, all I used was a number two pencil. For my last post I decided to experiment with charcoal, to see what it'd be like to use other common tools for drawing. "Charcoal is perhaps the ideal means for studies of figures from life because it is very easy to control when shading and can also help achieve very clear details" (Civardi 193). From drawing just one picture, I noticed many major differences between charcoal and a number two pencil. One thing that bugged me was how charcoal is much less forgiving in the sense that if you don't like how you initially sketched something with it, it's much harder to completely erase it so it's a much harder commitment. One thing it made up for though was how much easier it was to shade and create similar or different tones. The charcoal tends to blend very nicely, but can easily create contrast as well by applying more or less pressure (Civardi 193). When I used a regular pencil, my individual strokes were much easier to spot. This was not the case with the charcoal. Other things I experimented with were drawing facial hair, more detailed ears and an open mouth with teeth showing.




Even though I've only done five drawings, thanks to the book I've come very far. There are noticeable jumps in quality when looking at some of earlier posts, and comparing them to this final one. In the end, this was a very satisfying and interesting experience that gave me a taste of an activity I might have never tried.

My question for all of you is in what ways have you experimented with an activity and what was the result?

Giovanni, Civardi. Drawing, A Completle Guide. N.p.: Search, 2006.

General drawing: Face Portrait

Now that I've experimented with some basic shapes, it's time I got into some more complex drawings. This time, I decided to draw a face portrait using what I've learned previously (lighting and shading) as well as new information that gives tips about portraits, and drawing human features properly. The two definitely work together to get the best result. "Sometimes side lighting with its interesting contrasts, helps characterize the features and shapes the male face." (Civardi 100) If you don't use proper shading techniques to portrait the appearance of light and shadow on the person's face, the drawing will fail to look truly three dimensional. Although the lighting is very important in the drawing, this is actually one of the last steps you want to do when drawing a portrait. What you want to do is first draw the basic shape of the head, then add some detail in the form of simple eyes, the nose, the ears etc. and then focus on the different surfaces and planes on the person's face before even focusing on the lighting. (Civardi 99) Unlike a simple sphere on a surface, there are more complex parts to draw. For me personally, the most difficult parts were the eyes and the mouth. Even the slightest difference in a pencil stroke could create a noticeable irregularity in the drawing. Luckily, the book did break down many of the separate parts of the face and broke down how to approach drawing them in detail. Despite this, my drawing came out a bit rough.
While many parts of the drawing are well done, like the nose and jaw, there were still many parts that did not quite match the original picture I chose of the man. Overall, the picture lacked some polish that my previous picture managed to come closer to. However, it's important to keep in mind that this was my first attempt at a face portrait, and that there should only be only improvement from here on out.

This brings up the question, what are some strategies you have when it comes to improving on accomplishing difficult tasks?

Giovanni, Civardi. Drawing, A Completle Guide. N.p.: Search, 2006.