Rediscovering charcoal

Tonight at open life, I abandoned the pencils and picked up the sticks of charcoal. Working on large newsprint, I tried to loosen up a little.

Life drawing sessions

As I've written before, I run a long pose model session for local artists here in Athens on Tuesday nights. We pitch in for the model fee, get inspired by one another and most importantly work from life. Posted are two drawings that I don't think I will take any further, but thought I would record before they were lost in a pile of sketches. I continue to work on the toned background. The first drawing was on paper primed with graphite powder and water. The second, is on a toned Strathmore charcoal paper.

Elena

I did a three color chalk study of my niece and goddaughter, Elena. She lives all the way up in Philadelphia, so we don't get to see her often enough, but I couldn't think of a cuter face (besides her big sister, Laura!) to draw. I looked at some Rubens and Watteau drawings for inspiration for this.

Mimi

I had the pleasure of spending time with my sweet grandmother this weekend. We had a wonderful afternoon together as I had sketched her and she told me stories. She will be 92 in May and you would never know it. She is a mess! Mimi, maybe measuring five feet, insisted on standing on a stool for our picture.

A long overdue post

I have a hard time parting ways with a painting and declaring I am actually finished with it. With that said, I think I am finished with this portrait. . . maybe.  I learned a lot in the process, but the end result was not exactly what I envisioned in the beginning. Nevertheless, I promised many months ago that I would post what I came up with!

Josh continued

Here are a couple of the drawings I've been working on with Josh. The second sketch done in sanguine is a Cretacolor. It is a new material for me. It comes in a stick, is waxy and erases to a certain degree.