This is the first of (probably) many pieces I'm going to do based on the photos I took of my basic training graduation. I don't normally use charcoal for portraits, but it's all I've got available at the moment, so I thought I'd give it a go. I used rough watercolour paper to give it a grainy appearance because I was trying to make it look a little vintage, like the photo it's based on:
A few weeks ago I went down to Somerset, MB, which is sort of the middle of nowhere. It was a middle of winter as well, and there was nothing much to look at but some really beautiful trees, devoid of leaves and covered in snow. I wanted to draw it when I got back, and started right out on this charcoal drawing. It looks nothing like the trees in Somerset. It turned out really dark and twisted. It reminds me of the Disney forests in Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. I like the dark fairy tale feel, but I think at some point I'll have to retry the original idea.
Here's my second try at using charcoal and oil paint. I learned quite a bit from the Horses experiment a couple of days ago. I did fewer layers, and after the first two I simply put down a layer of glazing medium and then drew into that (instead of the other way around). Much of the detail and most the actual lines stayed in the paint. I then scratched out some of the charcoal, which added more detail. You can see it in the close-up:
I'm really happy with how it turned out because you get enough information to really read the different textures, like the lace, but it has all the softness of the charcoal mixed with oil paint of the first painting.
I love the look of charcoal and oil paint, so I decided it was time to try it out for myself. I found an old mangled photo yesterday, and it was the perfect subject, a fountain I'd snapped a picture of years ago and kept around just in case. This is the finished (at this point, we'll see I suppose) product.
This was the first layer. I painted over the charcoal with some flake white diluted with lots of solvent. I took photos along the way so I could look back and figure out what to do differently next time.
I like this stage best, with the lighter background and sharper drawing, but unfortunately the charcoal would never stay like this and has to be painted over to stay on the canvas. However, I did experiment with drawing on top of a wet glaze, and the charcoal came out fairly defined and stayed put, so I'm going to try that a little earlier next painting (as in the second layer rather than the forth, like this painting), and I think I'll get better results in the end. Even though this is a painting it looks very much like how I sketch, layering vine charcoal and then compressed charcoal for depth, contrast, and definition. That's probably why I like it so much.
