Portraits #3

Part of the reason I signed-up for the Expressive Charcoal course, recently, was because I started working in mixed media. Which basically means, working in different mediums, in the same picture. I had a thing for working with collage, paint and charcoal.

If it wasn't for the love affair with mixed media, I wouldn't have signed-up for the course, this year. But I'm glad I did, because I'm learning so much about charcoal. It's uncanny however, that all roads lead back to Rome - as you'll see in my next portrait, in the series.

First layer

This wasn't going to be a reverse portrait, this time. I would apply the charcoal straight to white paper. As I was determined to use the stick, more on it's side, than on it's tip. It was great for filling in blocks of colour, without getting hung up on details.

Then things changed. Experimentation, soon evolved into a horrible, dark and unappealing mess. Major frustration! Rather than quit on my picture or give myself a hard time, I turned to my former muse of mixed media. Because collage, immediately covers a multitude of sins!

Finished

I finally got the chance to use my new Liquitex, matte medium, to paste on the newsprint. And because it's charcoal, the medium turned grey and stained the newsprint too. Effectively blending it to the rest of the picture, and making the charcoal less intense, overall.

Dark, muddy mess - be gone! Okay, maybe not completely, so I used a touch of white charcoal, under the chin, and in his hair, for highlights.

Unintentionally, looks like, Australian bush-ranger ~

Ned Kelly

In this close-up, you can see the original white paper, black charcoal, collage and matte medium. Which is actually the brush strokes, caused by the medium, moving the charcoal around. I like this effect. It tones down the charcoal - as my eraser, wasn't real good at cutting into the charcoal.

It was a fun experiment, but not strictly charcoal. Which is okay. Because all roads still lead back to Rome eventually! I'm going to return to charcoal. I'm debating whether I'll do another portrait, or just move on to the next exercise though. I'll see where my muse, takes me, tomorrow!

PS: I used the racing guide as newspaper, for this particular collage. Pieces were randomly torn and put down. After blowing up the picture, I find one of the names: "LOVE OR GOLD" on his cheek. Which kind of matches the Ned Kelly theme. Weird, huh?

Portrait #2

Yesterday, I wrote about attempting a reverse portrait of my husband. As much as I enjoyed the exercise, I made two rookie mistakes. Firstly, I went too hard with the initial charcoal layer - making it difficult to erase any white highlights, afterwards. Secondly, I needed a closer view of his face, to manipulate the details better, with the charcoal.

So another portrait was attempted, utilising the same picture - just a closer view.

First layer

This time I went lighter on the initial charcoal layer. Then gradually cut away highlights. Willow charcoal, was better than the compressed charcoal for erasing too.

Second layer

Sketching the outline, made it look very cartoony. I've gotten into the habit of drawing lines around everything! Although, it has a rather abstract appearance about it, also. If I was aiming for abstract, this portrait would be done. But I wanted to see more charcoal.

Finished

There was a squinty expression, which made one of his eyes appear smaller than the other. It was more him, than the former attempt, yesterday. But still not entirely him. One thing was glaringly obvious, afterwards though. Where was my "expressive" charcoal? I achieved some character, but I used the charcoal like a pencil - rather than using it like charcoal!

So bear with me, I'm going to attempt another portrait (same picture) without aiming for "likeness" and proficient drawing skills. I want to tackle it very differently. Wish me luck! 

A portrait of sorts

I was looking forward to this particular exercise, in my Expressive Charcoal course. I watched the video on Friday, but couldn't get started until after the weekend - when the kids returned to school.

The concept of working in reverse to form our picture, was intriguing. We had to select an image (the suggestion in the example, was a self portrait) but I chose the one of my husband, dressing up as Wolverine. I wasn't intending to do the whole claws thing, just draw his face.

As much as I loved the ghostly effect of cutting into the charcoal with an eraser, I quickly realised the paper I was using, wasn't compatible. As I couldn't remove all of the charcoal, to reveal the white paper, underneath. It was quite frustrating, but I had to press on!

While I think I obtained a "likeness" of my husband, in some aspects - the portrait kind of morphed into someone completely different. Which was okay, as the exercise wasn't about achieving a picture-perfect likeness. It was more about exploring the different values between light and dark.

One of my favourite things (it seems) is cutting into the charcoal with an eraser. As it added a textural element to the background. One of the most challenging aspects however, was achieving finer details, such as the eyes.

Even my thinnest stick of charcoal, was 6mm wide. With such a bulky implement on such fine detail, the eyes were too misshaped for my liking. As well as too cartoony, with an outline. I really struggled with variation, in those limited spaces though.

On the whole, it was still an enjoyable exercise.

Expressive charcoal

I'm doing an expressive charcoal drawing class at the moment. I didn't intend to sign-up until next year, but the recent intake happened to coincide with my experimentation with charcoal in mixed media.

Here are some examples from a recent exercise...

 Stretching with umbrella

 Yoga pose

Twirling

Dog running with Frisbee

Skipping-walking

The idea was to work quickly, with time restrictions on how long you could observe the subject. Which is why I drew such basic figures. Yet clearly, they do possess movement.

While some of the exercises feel uncomfortable, as I'm not used to working within some of the limitations, I'm still enjoying the class. Some pennies are dropping for me, in areas I've always wondered - how do I incorporate energy, without making it look unnatural?

Tranquility piece

It's been ten months since I worked in my studio. Nesting priorities, come first at this stage in my life. But what was working against me getting back in there, was having my studio overtaken with remnants of a quilt project, and anything else we cared to dump, when visitors were expected

I did a massive clean recently, and reclaimed my creative space. To mark this special occasion, I selected a subjected matter, I hoped would create a sense of tranquility and reflection, in my new space.

I found a picture online, of a young girl, playing with water from a jetty. But she had a frilly skirt on, and I wanted to create a lady. So I sketched with charcoal, something more from my mind - using the online image for cues.

I started with hot pick and green acrylic paint, for a more abstract use of colours. But the more I added, the more I found the pink burning into my retina. I wanted something more tranquil.

Using white gesso, helped me tone back the pink, with just a hint remaining. I could probably play with this piece some more, but figured it went against the tranquility I was aiming for. Too many details would have forced me to concentrate, more than I actually planned to.

So I leave it on my wall as a reminder, not to force creativity. Just accept it, how it flows sometimes.

Materials used: watercolour paper, charcoal, gesso, acrylic paint and water soluble, artbar.

The worker

As one of the exercises I worked through for my online course, I chose a worker, planting rice in a paddy field. When looking for reference photos, I stumbled across the humble rice paddy worker, and there was something about them, I deeply admired...

I respect the fact their civilisation, took to feeding themselves by the sweat of their own brow. There's no industrial agriculture here, feeding extremely large populations. Their food is somewhat sacred, by maintaining their annual pact with the land, to respect the paddy field. Sacred, because they placed themselves delicately in the environment which would feed them. Complimentary to abundance.

Any civilisation which still feeds itself like this, is ahead of the Western civilisation pack, in my opinion. Because they have natural equity to farm from, instead of depletion and erosion. The people themselves also have beautiful environments to work in, without heavy pollution and cumbersome infrastructure.

So it was with great admiration and respect, I captured their important work in their sacred office. Truly worth committing to paper. The IXL charcoal blocks I worked with, complimented this earthy subject beautifully too. In some cases, like the trees and bamboo in the background, I barely had to scrape the surface.

For so many reasons, I really enjoyed working on this piece.

Day 5 mini challenge

When day 5 came around, it struck me, I wanted to do a self portrait. All this creating had revealed a little more about my creative style, so I wanted to see how that would translate into a portrait.

I chose charcoal pencils as my sketching medium.

It looks rather ordinary compared to how I feel. I could have done mad colour combinations, because that's how I'm feeling about creating right now. I'm loving the excitement of looking at the world differently. So why didn't I portray that in my self-portrait? Because charcoal is gritty, like I've had to be, over the past five days.

I've had terrible scheduling conflicts, with this particular challenge. I've had to just dig-in and persevere. But I also like the calming qualities that working with charcoal, seems to give me. Could it be, because it's a natural medium of the earth?

Charcoal portrait

I am joining the art challenge for January, at The Daily Art Tattler. Thank you Linda for giving me something interesting to tackle every month!

For the month of January, the challenge is to complete a self-portrait. Linda has posted some video tutorials to get people started. I haven't viewed them yet, but will make time soon.

I decided to start my self-portrait early, with the mediums I had already chosen (charcoal and black paper) to test how they work. I'm glad I did, because while I love the effects I was able to achieve, there was one obvious downside...

Click to enlarge

It didn't look anything like me! 

I had chosen the black paper and earthy colours for two reasons - firstly, I LOVE earthy tones and couldn't think of a better way to reproduce my likeness, but secondly, I wanted to do a portrait on black paper to acknowledge the mixed indigenous heritage I learned about, in 2013.

I just never meant to look that brown. I wouldn't have minded to be honest, only the likeness doesn't look much like me either and the right side of the face is kind of lopsided. I was drawing on an angle, so I think that's why its skewed. I drew completely freehand though, so there was no sketch outline to stick to. I'll reconsider that for my next attempt.

I'm not sure if I'll stick to charcoal or the black paper, but that's all part of working through the challenge!