Tag: charcoal

  • Study and Express

    Study and Express

    I did some more work with the black graphite pencils, and then I made a charcoal sketch with much faster, looser movements, and I like the difference. I bought a small can of “low odour” fixative, because with all the rain we have had there is a backlog of charcoal and pastel works needing fixed.…

  • Two Years

    Two Years

    Trying something similar to yesterday, and adding in a Conté pencil. I noticed today that yesterday marked precisely two years since I started a 100 Day Project, and then just kept going. Two years of daily art practise is pretty cool. Til the morn, Suzanne 731/800

  • Inverness and Toes

    Inverness and Toes

    Some snaps from our Inverness trip. Today’s art: Charcoal, acrylic ink and medium. Til the morn, Suzanne 730/800

  • 700 Consecutive Days

    700 Consecutive Days

    Day 700 It’s seven hundred days since I decided to do a hundred day project thinking I might make it to something like two weeks if I was lucky. I had, and still have, a very loose parameter – one art act and blog it. Most days I do more, but the bare minimum is…

  • Charcoal and Gesso Fun

    Charcoal and Gesso Fun

    Repeating the pose from yesterday, I used a piece of A2 paper that had some layers of figure drawing practise, each one covered with gesso. This makes for a sumptuous textured surface, and another layer of gesso went over the most recent sketch to make a blank page for this drawing. I used the same…

  • XL Charcoal XL Paper XL Toes

    XL Charcoal XL Paper XL Toes

    I was feeling like some big mark-making, so I pulled out one of the XL paper sheets (A1 size) and one of my XL charcoal chunks. They are water-soluble, but I didn’t play with that aspect for this piece, because once it was on the page I liked the way it looked. The only thing…

  • Homeward

    Homeward

    Travel day today, and I have my four-legged lodger for the night, so a quick turn re-acquainting myself with my studio. Compressed charcoal and clear gesso and marvelling at how strange the easel feels after a week away. Til the morn, Suzanne 642/700

  • Pan Pastels Portrait Set

    Pan Pastels Portrait Set

    I had quite a productive day today and worked on several things, but the highlight of the day was the arrival of a set of pan pastels. I don’t usually buy sets of things, but the offer price was too good to pass up, and the only colour I already had was the white, so…

  • Charcoal Pastel Gesso

    Charcoal Pastel Gesso

    Starting with some warm-up play in a sketchbook on a page that had some acrylic paint from a previous session as a ground, I played with this high-contrast reference and some charcoal powder. Having smudged in some basic shadow areas, I wanted a darker dark, so I mixed the charcoal powder with clear gesso, and…

  • Ode to a Doo

    Ode to a Doo

    This is very much in the formative, ugly stage of whatever it’s going to be, which is very much what could be said about my entire day today. I did not get much sleep, and then when I eventually did get off to sleep, I was rudely awakened by a flippin horny wood pigeon telling…

  • Soft Pastel Everywhere

    Soft Pastel Everywhere

    I am having a lot of fun with this one, not least because whatever perimenopause shite is going on with my hip/knee combo seems to be easing, and I’ve been able to stand for longer periods of time. Yay. This is two more sessions from the last time I posted. The first session involved a…

  • Chunks and Smears

    Chunks and Smears

    One of yesterday’s drawings was hilariously bad, but a good smear of gesso over everything but the head made a fresh layer for another go today. I used one of my XL charcoal chunks for some messy, chonky mark-making, and then sprayed it all with water. I can never remember which XL charcoal chunks are…