Friday 22 June 2018

Gorilla


A week ago I saw an art program on TV and it included a brief look at an artist using Charcoal Pencils. It reminded me that I have a set that I've never used. I was impressed by the blackness of the blacks and the extra 'drama' in the resulting picture as a result. I achieve reasonable blacks when working with graphite but 'graphite shine' can be an issue if too many layers are applied. 

Anyway, I was feeling inspired enough to dig out my unused set of Charcoal Pencils and have my first experience of working in this medium. To appreciate the 'blackness' of charcoal I chose a subject that needed plenty of deep juicy blacks so chose this Gorilla. 

To be honest I found the Charcoal pencils not only messy to work with (compared to graphite) but difficult to sharpen. I found blending took more effort than it does with graphite and trying to erase unwanted marks was impossible. 

I'm really pleased I gave this medium a try and learnt a great deal just by doing this one picture, but I don't think I'll be rushing to do another charcoal drawing. For anyone interested I've put a Work In Progress page on my main web site showing the various stages.

12 comments:

  1. Wow, very impressive! I don't see any sign that you found these pencils hard to work with.

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  2. Huge Congratulations on this AMAZING piece, John!!! You can almost feel his fur! (Not that I would want to...ha..ha...). I hope you do some more using this medium...a bit challenging but SO worth it.... Again, outstanding work, my friend!!

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    1. Thank you Hilda. I guess as someone who works in pastels, you experience much more dust and mess than I did doing this one. You never know, I may have another go at some point. ;-)

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  3. You could go professional in this medium, John. It's as good as it gets. Brilliant!

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    1. That's very generous of you John and I appreciate it very much. ;-)

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  4. I don't like the messiness of charcoal either but you did a fantastic job with this. Wonderful expression!

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    1. Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one. Thank you Linda. ;-)

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  5. This is so amazing that it's scary... !!!

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    1. Thank you very much BJ. More than one person has asked if it's a self-portrait. LOL.

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  6. I understand the cons of working charcoal but if this is the result of your first foray into the medium...UM..WOW!!! JOHN THIS IS STUNNING!!! I used to work in graphite a lot but could never avoid the dreaded graphite shine! Your work has always been among my favorites, as are you. Stunning piece!

    And thank you for your kind words!

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    1. You're very kind Suz, thank you very much. ;-)

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