Playing with Charcoal - Red Tulip

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12x9", charcoal and white chalk on gray paper, 2/13/16

I've been meaning to try out some charcoal pencils I was given a little while back :) Truth be told, I've never drawn much with charcoal--and certainly not from life. I think we might have used the big charcoal sticks some (though I think we mostly used conte crayon?) in the one semester of figure drawing I took at the local MT university back when I was 16 ;). Too long ago to remember very well. 

And then, of course, I've attempted a few Sargent copies in charcoal lately, with finicky results. I find charcoal to be so tricky to use, because it really doesn't erase very well--at least not if the charcoal is on very thick. So if I make a wrong mark, it seems it's there to stay :/ 

I like that you can get a much broader range of values with the charcoal. I was using a soft pencil (4B) here, and I think this delicate subject may have been better suited to a harder pencil--things to remember in the future. This was about a 30 minute drawing.

And I'm sorry if anyone is following this blog (hi, Mom!) and is getting horribly bored by all my posts and ramblings about drawing. I blog mostly just to keep myself accountable (I made it a goal to try to do a little bit of art every single day, if possible!). And to keep track of the little things I'm learning and discovering along the way (and maybe vent my frustrations here and there--ie, my last post :P)

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