Monday, February 13, 2012

Charcoal Artichoke

Charcoal! This stuff is a blast. Smear it all around with my fingers. Spray a layer of fixative and work in some more. The exercise called for highlighting with chalk but I didn't like the smearing--perhaps the opacity of the pigment. Better to leave highlights, I think, by keeping the white of the paper.


2 comments:

  1. I think you made the right choice to use the white of the papaer for your highlights; a lot of its appeal is how soft it looks and I think the addition of white chalk would have been too jarring to the eye; this has a lovely "old masters" feel to it.
    ~ gretchen

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm so glad you mentioned the old masters feel! I think a distinct single-source light and the absence of exacting detail help towards that end. I'm looking into the feasibility of oil painting over charcoal and so far it looks promising.

    I think the white chalk with charcoal might work nicely if we were asked to start with a toned paper.

    ReplyDelete