Charcoal - Add and Subract Method

I wanted to share a little about the method I have been using to make most of my charcoal drawings lately.  It's an add and subtract sort of method.

First I print off the desired image from my computer as the size I want it.  Then I determine where I want the image to fall on my paper and measure accordingly.

Then I take masking tape, rip it to my desired length, and then de-stickafy it on my jeans, sweater, chair, blanket, whatever.  But before I stick it down against the border of my paper, I rip a piece of paper to the desired length and width, keeping one side mostly straight.  I then stick down the piece of tape right up to the border of my image, but place the paper under the majority of the tape so only a small line of sticky tape is touching the border of the image.

I do that to all four sides of the image.  I do this to help me keep clean edges.  I put the paper under the tape to protect the paper from being damaged.  It seems to work pretty well most of the time.  But, if there's better ways of doing this, I would love to know!

Once the border is in place, I shade in the entire area with a light charcoal layer and blend with my finger until even everywhere.  I then mark off inch-mark ticks on the tape and draw a very faint charcoal line connecting the marks to create a grid.  (I keep the lines light enough so that I can simply smear them out when I am done with the image).

After the grid is in place I often start just lightly drawing in the shape of the image.  I like to block most of it out before fleshing it out.  I usually measure the placement of the marks against the image I have printed and use my grid to make sure the image is as accurate as possible.

Once the shapes are mostly there I begin filling in the values.  I generally work left to right because I am right handed and don't want to smear my work, but I try to keep a piece of paper under my hand while I work too.  I like to flesh out an entire area with values and then move on to the next until most of it is complete, but sometimes jump around a lot.  Sometimes I also like to start by filling in the darkest values first.

Then after the values, I readjust if areas are too light or too dark.  To make an area white, I simply use my kneaded eraser and subtract the value. 

Lastly, I add in textures and other small details to make it complete.  Once complete, I sign it, take off the tape, clean up the edges if they need to be cleaned up, push down any damaged paper on the edges with a bone folder, and then spray with a fixative outside.

What is your favorite method when using charcoal?

A Musical Piece - Completed Charcoal Drawing

I finished this drawing as I was in the process of moving to a new place and then shipped it off to the intended owners. They were very happy with it, as was I! I am very glad it’s done and I can move on to new projects! I don’t feel like I want to do this big of a drawing for a long time. I guess you can say it burned me out a little bit. I hope that the Hunts enjoy this drawing for a long time!

When I sent them the drawing I sent it through FedEx and included a Certificate of Authenticity. I was nervous about sending it in the mail, but it worked just fine. They had a great box for art/paper. It was kind of pricey and the next time I send something in the mail I think I will buy the box and put it together myself to say on some of the cost.

So what do you think of the final piece??

Closing in on Completion - Musical Art Piece

I'm working on the last one right now and hopefully only have about 2 more hours of work on it, and then it's shipping off! What do you think about it? Do you like it?

Portrait Commission Drawing for Nancy

This last summer I had the fun opportunity of teaching bookbinding to my mother-in-law Susan and her friend Nancy (see this post). During the summer Nancy also asked me to draw a picture for her of daughters. I was excited to be given this opportunity and sell my first work of art! I did not get a chance to finish the drawing over the summer due to young twins and moving, but I did finish it right before the Holidays, right after I finished my classwork.

The day we headed down to my in-laws for Christmas, I finished the drawing, and it came out beautifully. Seriously, it looked good. I cleaned up the border, signed it, and laid it outside on the dry patch of our patio and sprayed it with fixative. I left it outside for five minutes to set and deodorize outside.

However, shortly after leaving it there, Josh, my husband, screamed "There's a dog in our backyard!!!" And sure enough, an ugly collar-less dog was in our backyard/patio, stepping on my completed (15+ hours) and beautiful drawing. We shewed him away as fast as we could, grabbed the drawing and I immediately began cleaning up what I could.... but, there is a permanent paw print/scratch on the right side of the drawing. We were angry, we were sad. What are the chances of this happening? I should have listened to Josh when he suggested that I spray the fixative while he held it outside. He was worried some snow would drop off the roof onto it or something, but I was sure it would be fine. It wasn't snow that happened upon it, but a dog, a dog we've never seen before and never will see again. Why he had to enter into our fenced-in patio area and came up to our glass sliding door and stepped on my drawing, we don't know, other than God has a sense of humor and wants to ensure that we are sufficiently humble...
But, in all honesty, it's pretty funny. Of course a dog came and stepped on my drawing in the five minutes it was outside the day it was "due." Of course there was like no chance of that happening but it did. But, Nancy was generous and willing to overlook the mark, thankfully. I told her I could redraw it for her, or another picture for the price she paid. Fortunately if she mats the drawing where I have the border, most of the mark will be unseen. Nancy loved the drawing of her daughters and was SO excited to see it and be able to give it to her husband for Christmas.

Nancy gave me a 4"x6" colored photograph, and then I scanned it, made it black and white, and began my drawing. I lightly made a grid on my paper and a grid over a printed version of the photo. The final piece is drawn on an 11"x15"sheet of Pescia white paper, with the image being approx. 10"x6 3/4."

Here's the scanned B&W version, and a scanned copy of the drawing:
What do you think? Is it any good? What could I have done better? Any questions/comments?

Figure Drawing

I really love drawing figures... so here's some highlights from in-class work, and then I'll show you my final project!

And here's what I did Fall Semester for the final, a drawing of Josh and our friend Mark.

And here's my figure drawing final I did last semester, based on pregnancy pictures taken by my friend Lisa Jastal. She did a great job.

First Figure Drawing Class

So, I love drawing, and I really love figure drawing. Last semester I took my first figure drawing class, and loved when we actually drew the figure... Here's some of the work I did in this class over the semester. And look for more to come as I am taking Figure Drawing 322 this semester (as long as BYU will let me add it).

These first ones are loose gestures done with conte. And at BYU, the models are students who have to wear bikinis or speedos.

I enjoyed it when we had guys to draw, well at least when the guys had muscles. Way more fun! Here's just more gestural poses. (like 2-5 minutes)



We worked on correct proportions and used grids to accomplish it.


And here's some extended poses (like 3 hours):



We did some ink washes, so here's a self-portrait and then a figure:
And here's a conte with gesso:

And here's an exercise we did where we had to draw an exact copy of a work made by an artist. Josh and I both really like how it turned out. Too bad it's a replica of someone else's handy work.