Charcoal n' Chalk Female

Bringing the Blog up to speed. After having a total malfunction of my Laptop last year, it was a good time to return to traditional work whilst saving up for somet new tech. One of my favourite methods is using black charcoal and white chalk to create images on coloured paper/card, preferably a mid range tone or dull colour like grey is perfect. It was a while since last using this medium so my approach was a little slow and rusty but it got there in the end.

Step one: Using study reference draw outline of Image, being keen to get applying charcoal and chalk I kept this fast and loose, this may have lead to positioning and symmetry issues later but we live and learn.

Step two: Went about outlining hair, eyes and shaded areas with charcoal, and brightened skin by smudging lightly chalk dust, this was more than I originally intended almost drowning out the skin highlights but brought a illuminated look that worked out but I got the message, don't be too liberal with your chalk highlights.

Final Stage: So I continue adding light and dark building the image, following reference guides, the charcoal pencil was used from tighter details and the process often required smudging or erasing with charcoal eraser, but also household cotton buds (for ears) and tissue, you don't want to get too much on your hands and stain the image plus I think with the warmth and moisture of hands or fingers, using them as smudge tools is a little less predictable/controllable. Just finish when your happy or when its past 2am, like this one was.

Not using a great camera but I often like to add an Instagram filter on bits like this depending if I like the effect or not, You can check out @MCCANNOID there and follow me to see more! I'd love to hear any comments, critique or advice for future works using this media or just in general. Thanks.