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Portrait Charcoal Drawings


Portrait charcoal drawings are done on archival acid free papers

click on image to enlarge

Description of image Brinna, 16"x20" charcoal and pencil on paper

Description of image Baby, 14"x18" charcoal and pencil on paper
Description of image Bros, 20"x24" charcoal and pencil on paper
Description of image Dragon, 20"x24" charcoal and pencil on paper
Description of image Flora, 20"x24" charcoal and pencil on paper
Description of image Girls, 24"x30" charcoal and pencil on paper
Description of image Glasses, 16"x20" charcoal and pencil on paper
Description of image Jeanine, 18"x24" charcoal and pencil on paper
Description of image Boy with Hat, 16"x20" charcoal and pencil on paper
Description of image Babe Ruth, 18"x24" charcoal and pencil on paper


The Process:

charcoal figure drawingI used a HB pencil to start laying in the general shape of the head. I kept the value very light and took caution not to press too hard on the paper so I can erase easily with the kneaded eraser to correct mistakes if necessary. I used mainly the straight lines to construct the head shapes. Using straight lines enables me to see things in a very simplified manner, working big to small shapes achieving the accuracies easier. Like most of my portrait charcoal drawings, I have began with the head instead of other areas. Establishing the head first enables me to use the height dimension of the head to comparatively measure out rest of the area.

charcoal figure drawingAfter l felt comfortable with lightly established understructure of the head, I went ahead and began blocking in the body. Like all my other charcoal drawings, I kept things very light during these beginning stages. I continued using only the straight lines to see the shapes more accurately. I used the height of the head to double check the height proportions of the body, then I also used other measuring references such as the width of certain areas to measure other areas or the widths.

charcoal figure drawingI started inserting dark features on top of the established understructure once I felt comfortable with the lightly laid in figure. I marked in the darkest dark I can get with the charcoal so I can start comparing the values easier, light white of the paper to darkest dark of the media. I try to do this early with all my charcoal drawings

charcoal figure drawingI began adding more details and polishing the portrait. Blending some surfaces and just filling in the blanks between the light and dark values. I tried to used the point of the pencil even for shading to render describing the form with linear hatchings.

charcoal figure drawingcharcoal figure drawing

I continued polishing the drawing and started laying in the dark value of the hair. Hairs are always fun to work on because I like to imagine the pencil as a comb and try to feel out the hair with expressive strokes. Adding dark hair also seems to always add immediate contrast to the portrait.I also accented the darks and highlights in the eyes at this stage.

charcoal figure drawingadding more details and rendering to the finish. This last stage probably takes the longest time from the previous stage in charcoal drawings. It's not necessarily hard but very time consuming , to polish and tighten things up. The most difficult stage to me is the beginning stage where I have to figure out proportions ,composition, etc.

charcoal figure drawing

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FUN EXTRA STUFFS:

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click here to see more processes of my charcoal drawings

click here for my drawing tutorials


click here to check out my fave old masters from the past