I attend an art class every Tuesday run by a local artist Janet Robinson. Today the task was to draw a still life
comprising glass bottles, leaves and a housebrick using charcoal. Initially I did not like charcoal as it seemed very messy and did not allow for the capture of detail.
However with practice, I find it is my preferred medium as it is very expressive and easy to modify when things go wrong. The only downside is I find I smear one
part of the drawing whilst working on another part. The attempt was as follows.
Life Drawing 7th Nov 2013
The weekly life drawing class was moved to the evening. The studio was darkened and artists issued with small LED touches with the model illuminated from one side
only, the rest being shade. This was a challenging environment to work in as neither the model nor the paper could be clearly seen. I darkened the paper
uniformly with charcoal and proceeded by wiping out to represent light and using more charcoal to deepen shadows.
Life Drawing 2nd Nov 2013
I have been attending life drawing sessions for about a year but feel I am still very much an amateur. However I persevere. My work is in willow
charcoal as this is quite forgiving. Once I feel that I have made some progress in this I will try with a coloured medium.