Portrait Charcoal Drawings
Portrait charcoal drawings are done on archival acid free papers
click on image to enlarge  | Brinna, 16"x20" charcoal and pencil on paper |  | Baby, 14"x18" charcoal and pencil on paper |  | Bros, 20"x24" charcoal and pencil on paper |  | Dragon, 20"x24" charcoal and pencil on paper |  | Flora, 20"x24" charcoal and pencil on paper |  | Girls, 24"x30" charcoal and pencil on paper |  | Glasses, 16"x20" charcoal and pencil on paper |  | Jeanine, 18"x24" charcoal and pencil on paper |  | Boy with Hat, 16"x20" charcoal and pencil on paper |  | Babe Ruth, 18"x24" charcoal and pencil on paper |
The Process:
 I 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.
 After 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.
 I 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
 I 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.
 
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.
 adding 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.
click here to see works by the 19th century masters
FUN EXTRA STUFFS:
click here to see the portrait drawings
click here to see the recommended books
click here to see recommended drawing supplies
click here to see the recommended art schools & workshops
click here to see the drawing tutorials
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
|
