🎨 How to Draw Charcoal Like the Old Masters - Live Model - Part 2

in #art7 years ago

Material and Procedure


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Original art by @jnart
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Do you want to draw a live portrait and come close to what the model actually look like? Then I will give you some great tips and guide you through one of my drawing procedures.

Drawing charcoal is possible in many ways. I will show you one way. First you need to get the proper stuff. Nitram or similar premium charcoal comes in different hardness that come in handy in the later stages of an drawing. Use a sandpaper to sharpen till you get a sharp edge. The same goes for the softer Willow charcoal. I can not stress it enough - sharpen often! And for paper - use a quality paper like Canson 250gsm. Then you can be rough with the paper and not taring it apart. On brown paper like this demo - use white chalk for the highlights. Art Eraser fits well with charcoal. Ok, all the basic stuff - let us head on.

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First set up the model and easel as the previous post I did - we are using Sight Size. If it is a full body pose you place the easel further back to fit the drawing on the paper.

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Procedure is as follows:
  1. Use the softer Willow charcoal and establish the height - copy from the top of the head and bottom of the feet horizontally to the paper. If you have set up the paper this should be possible.

  2. Establish a center line. Where is the body weight? Is the model leaning? If you draw a line from between the feet straight up - where does it end.

  3. Start to block in the volumes. See big shapes and measure their relationship with each other and the model. Look for angels and draw clear lines that are easy to read! They are easier to check if they are correct.

  4. Check the height - from feet to crotch area to head. Compare the width to the height.

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5. When the proportions seem to be right continue to block in the shapes of the shadows.

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The last steps witch contains lots of smaller steps (saving them for an other time) i all about. Here you use the Nitram charcoal for better control.
  1. Finding light shapes and mid tones and breaking all the different shapes into smaller pieces.
  2. Work with the transitions between the shapes - hard, soft or lost.
  3. Go back to previous steps as fast as something feels out of proportion.
  4. Finally add a background that suit the drawing.
  5. Ta da! All done!

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Extra tips!
  • Fokus on the parts that do not move much. The model will lose posture so skip details in the arms or head in the beginning.
  • If you want to focus on one part - ask the model to hold that part still.
  • Establish strong legs - they are the foundation to build the upper body on top
  • Squint your eyes or blur your vision to see values more clearly.
  • Use the art eraser to remove charcoal - but it often work well to just smudge the charcoal.

I think this was enough for this time. Ask me anything. Of course there is lots more to teach but I think this should be enough for a semi advanced charcoal portrait of a live model. Cheers!

I will open my new website - www.jnart.se on monday. Other channels to see my art via Instagram- usernamne: jnart.se or Facebook. Ask me if you want help or tips. If you want to order illustrations - just contact me!

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Follow if you like! And have a good Steem!

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Great tutorial. Just rediscovered drawing for myself (while helping my daugter to draw her ponies...) and this is helpful. I will rather use pencils, but I guess the principle holds. Keep on steemin'!

Thanks! Good luck :) and may the ponies be with you!

Great tutorial again. It seems like you know your different medias quite well. I always liked working with charcoal for the quick way you can achieve value and build form. Great for quick figure studies.
Thanks again for another great tutorial!

Thank you! I have been working with different medias for some time. Yet there is so much toe learn. Especially digital painting and oil is major areas of improvement. What media would you like to master some day - I think watercolor is the coolest.

I work well with vector designing on the computer, but I really want to get good at painting digitally. I have never fully grasped it because I don't get the physical feedback of mixing color. I like watercolor a lot as well. Watercolor with Pen and Ink used to be my go-to.

Looking good! I find charcoal to be such a messy medium to work it, but it's always worth it to get your hands dirty for the sake of art! Looking forward to more tips from you in the future!

Thanks! I thought so too until I find out the painting quality it has. It's also good to practice not leaning hand to paper some time although it really sucks to smudge. There will be more - I like doing these - makes me repeat and think about how I do my art. Have a great day!

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