93/100 - 03.03.2010

fast portrait drawing practice - vine charcoal

these did'nt turn out very well, I might try them again.

92/100 - 02.03.2010

figure drawing class - charcoal

87/100 - 25.02.2010

quick charcoal sketch
unfortunately, this looks like a child drew it :(

84/100 - 22.02.2010

life drawing class - Charcoal

I decided it was time to get some lessons! I saw an ad in the art store (which I have been frequenting recently) for a life drawing class in the Glasgow Botanical gardens on Tuesdays. So I went along to check it out. It was interesting, but I definitely felt that I was running out of time at the end of most of th poses. next week I need to bring bigger paper though.

79/100 - 17.02.2010

charcoal and chalk
This is the largest drawing I've done so far, usually I work on A4 ish sized paper but today I picked up an A3 pad of coloured paper. It was quite a difficult subject but I think it turned out quite nicely.

78/100 - 16.02.2010

charcoal, messy lines

73/100 - 11.02.2010

chalk on pastel paper

72/100 - 10.02.2010

coffee pot - charcoal and chalk on tinted paper.

I like how this one turned out. I think that over the last 70 days I've started to see better, which seems to be one of the big hurdles to becoming a better artist.

62/100 - 31.01.2010

charcoal on 40 post-it notes
this was not fun... I drew each post-it seperately and put them all together later.

50/100 - 19.01.2010

wonky salt and pepper. charcoal and chalk on tinted paper.

48/100 - 17.01.2010

46/100 - 15.01.2010

Charcoal and chalk on tinted paper.

Boring fact: First thing I've drawn on my new easle. I noticed that a lot of my drawings seem elongated, and I guess it was due to drawing on a level surface, which caused some weird perspective issues (I think I was adjusting for the top of the page being smaller visually) With an easle the paper can be angled so that it is completely facing the eye.

44/100 - 13.01.2010

Statue of a firefighter. Charcoal and chalk on tinted paper.

Things I've learned so far about using charcoal:
You can cover a lot of paper in a short amount of time.
It's messy.
It's tricky not to smudge the parts that have already drawn.
The finished drawing needs to be sprayed with a fixitive or else the slightest touch could ruin it.
It's quite hard drawing with a burnt twig.
It scans well (a lot better than pencil or watercolour)
The blacks are really black.
It's fun.

43/100 - 12.01.2010

Stone figure. Charcoal and chalk on tinted paper.

24/100 - 24.12.2009

A portrait drawn in charcoal on 9 post-it notes.
Listening to: Giant Bomb Cast

7/100 - 07.12.2009

Another charcoal drawing today, this time of a macro photo of a small swiss army knife. The paper is tinted so I tried using a white pastel for the highlights. The paper was quite grainy so the texture is showing through a lot, not sure if that's good or bad, also I found it hard to get smooth areas of shading - as you can see in the shadows. Bit of a problem here with the size of the different parts as well, the scissors should have been a bit longer.

Charcoal and white pastel on tinted pastel paper. Photo (mine) used as source.
Listening to: The Collings and Herrin Podcasts.

5/100 - 05.12.2009

So, to mix things up a little, and since I had some time, I tried using charcoal today. Charcoal is something I've always wanted to try but always found it very difficult to use. I think it turned out alright, the glass looks ok but as usual the proportions and layout was difficult. Another difficulty I found is how easily smudged the charcoal is, it's tricky trying to draw without resting your hand on the parts you've already put down - maybe I'm supposed to start at the left side and work over to the right? Hmm. It would be interesting to go back to some of these reference photos at the end of the 100 drawings and draw some again, to compare things.

This took around an hour (estimated) to complete, charcoal and putty eraser on cartridge paper. Photograph (mine) used as a source.
Listened to: Giant Bombcast (videogame podcast)