Charcoal, graphite
Strathmore 400 drawing paper
18x24
Click on images for larger version.
Hey All…this drawing will be a pastel but I make a full value drawing and fix it…then apply pastel…I will take it almost to a polished finish but not quite.
If I didn’t have enough paper…so what’s another and I wanted to try Strathmore 400 Series Drawing Paper Pads and I also got Strathmore 400 Series Sketch Pad…
I love the sketch paper and I really don’t like the 400 drawing paper…its 18x24 so it is quite large…in a spiral bound pad with micro perforations…yea right how do you get a sheet out…of course the first two tries I rip it in the center and where it was supposed to tear was nice and intact…the third try I just cut it with scissors…well now that I feel nice and stupid I will start the drawing…
First I work everything out on tracing paper, (I started using tracing paper when I saw a fashion artist tracing models out of a magazine and developing her drawing from there)
I want to be a better draftsman so I start drawing freehand from the computer monitor…I do the best I can and eventually put a partial grid down to get things right…so my tracing paper is a horrible looking mess…I clean it up with an eraser and transfer it to the good paper using a homemade graphite sheet…
I want her face to come off the page by starting a blended gradient around her face…always a gradient and value change to make the form turn…
Crosshatch…blend…erase and that is basically what I will do to the end…
Crosshatch, blend and erase with graphite and started some charcoal in the eyes…about a medium pressure…one of her braids goes along her shoulder and not quite sure how to handle the dark and light…pastel I can make some mistakes but charcoal is not quite as forgiving…just plotting away…
I thought her mouth looked small…so I measured and re-measured and don’t hold me to it…I think she might have a small mouth…
Mapping out her hair with hb generals charcoal pencil…graphite in the center of the flower…that and the skin is the only graphite…rest is charcoal…
I have some Conte fusian charcoal pencils…they are not really black but a grey…different…like drawing with sand paper…so I am using it on the kimono…more are less trying to find something to use it on…too cheap to just throw them away…pretty to look at thou…
A few hesitant marks on the braid…still not quite sure what to do…all else fails I will just draw what I see…
Applied charcoal to background…rub and stumped in so solid black…her nostril on the right comes and goes…finally going to address the braid…since it will be a pastel I won’t take it too much farther…
Most of the time I can just lightly make circles in the iris…but this time it didn’t work…white pastel and charcoal make blue…since I am going to fix it anyway I went ahead and the white goes over the black very nicely…
If I was going to finish her I would stump her hair…erase and put some white in for the highlights…shadows of her hair on her face would give it more depth and the nose…
Thank you