It rained.
It poured.
Then it rained some more.
The perfect day to lose yourself in a new or at least changed medium.
I have wanted to work with my tinted charcoal pencils from Derwent for a while, but just did not seem to be able to find the time to really explore them.
The one time I really worked with them, the results were spectacular! That was in my figure drawing class on heavy black pastel paper. There I simply drew with them. But I did want to understand more about working and blending with them.
I had thought I had more black paper, but I did not, so I changed gears and tried a sheet of textured gray pastel paper. This paper, by Strathmore, has great tooth. The color is not solid gray, but flecked with shades of gray.
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| I drew with the charcoal pencils, But I was not happy with it. |
The still life I chose to draw is simple, Grapes a pear and several apples. One green, and two red. I wanted to see how I could develop the colors.
I did decided to draw directly with the charcoal pencils, as for this drawing I did not want to introduce the gray of graphite. Also, I wanted to see how hard it would be to make corrections with these pencils.
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| I found blending with a cotton swab gave very good results |
I sketched in the basic shapes of the still life, and then went over the relationships and sizes. I did sharpen the pencils for sketching, and did make corrections, simply using a stiff brush to remove any lines I did not like. A soft, kneaded eraser did lift any powder, but I tend to draw lightly, and none of the charcoal was worked deep into the paper fibers.
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| blocking in a shape |
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| heavy color before blending |
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| working with a cotton swab, I blended the shades together |
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| first layer after blending |
Now, these pencils did tend to lay down quite of bit of the tinted charcoal. I was not completely happy with the colors as they went down. Not a look I liked in this work. Using a cotton swab, I rubbed the colors in, and was actually happier with the colors and look. So I started to layer on different colors and blend them together, first with a cotton swab, then at the end with a tortillion to get sharper, cleaner edges.
I am rather pleased with the results.
