What a beautiful result! Thanks for sharing this-I’ve been using several types of charcoal (vine, harder charcoal pencils, and some dark black pastel) during live portrait drawing sessions, but I struggle getting middle values down even though I’m working on light grey paper. I like how you kept the values from getting too dark (that’s how it looks to me, anyway) and how realistic and beautiful your drawing became. I really want to try it next time-toning the paper with a layer of vine charcoal and then subtracting with a kneaded eraser before going a little darker (but not too dark) in those darkest areas. I’m not sure how you managed to keep your hands from resting on the paper and pulling off big smudges of vine, though! Well done, and thanks for teaching/sharing.
Also, I feel like this video deserves a lot more views than it’s got so far!
What a beautiful result! Thanks for sharing this-I’ve been using several types of charcoal (vine, harder charcoal pencils, and some dark black pastel) during live portrait drawing sessions, but I struggle getting middle values down even though I’m working on light grey paper. I like how you kept the values from getting too dark (that’s how it looks to me, anyway) and how realistic and beautiful your drawing became. I really want to try it next time-toning the paper with a layer of vine charcoal and then subtracting with a kneaded eraser before going a little darker (but not too dark) in those darkest areas. I’m not sure how you managed to keep your hands from resting on the paper and pulling off big smudges of vine, though! Well done, and thanks for teaching/sharing.