A few weeks ago, I already showed several self-portraits I completed with the Koh-i-noor brand "magic pencil" for my 2007 & 2008 Life Drawing classes at EMU. Today, I will reveal some of my best charcoal drawings from these classes.
I grew to have sort of a love-hate relationship with charcoal during those two semesters. I had used it a bit before, in drawing classes in 2006 & 2007, but had never used it before college. Perhaps more tellingly, after I switched to a Graphic Design and Watercolor major (as opposed to the Drawing major I briefly pursued at the beginning of college), I don't think I used charcoal again. This does not mean I didn't find success with the medium - just that I find graphite pencils and colored pencils easier (and cleaner) to work with. For the same reason, I found myself drawn to watercolor (rather than oil or acrylic paint).
It's not that I don't enjoy getting messy. I do - perhaps a little too much. I'm a bit of a klutz, and have a tendency to not put things away or watch out where things are when I am in the middle of an art project, and with messy media like charcoal or paint it was too easy to 1) get carried away making a mess and 2) make an even bigger mess, accidentally, just because I wasn't watching where I was going.
If I had an entire day to devote to art interrupted, in a space that was reserved only for my art, I might take on a "messier" project. But I usually have to squeeze my art into an hour here, or a few hours there - and I'm wearing my normal clothes, working in a room that is limited on space. I expect to be interrupted by a puppy needing to go outside. It just isn't feasible to make a huge mess when I know I won't have time to properly clean it up.
I had a similar problem in college. Life Drawing was only one of my classes that day, and I would often have a class right after, where I would have to switch from "studio" mode to "taking notes" mode - or "running a study session" mode, which involved using my laptop. I couldn't get charcoal on my laptop, so I had to spend the last ten minutes of class every day thoroughly washing my hands, making sure there were no smears of charcoal on my arms or sleeves or face which could later transfer to my notebook or backpack or laptop. I had to make sure the outside of my portfolio stayed clean, since I had to carry it around campus to my next class. I had to make sure that my charcoal supplies stayed in a different pocket of my backpack from my laptop, so there was no cross-contamination. It was a hassle - not least because lugging all that stuff around gets rather heavy.
That said, it was enjoyable to get my hands messy. Usually drawing is a rather clean activity, and charcoal was a nice change of pace. It's also quick, allowing for large drawings to be completed in a matter of minutes. Each Life Drawing studio class lasted three hours. We would often get 4-10 poses in during that time, depending on how long each pose was.
Here are some of my most successful charcoal drawings. Most are large scale, drawn on 18"x24" paper, or even 22"x30" paper. As per class assignments, some were reworked later, back in my dorm room - colored ink or paint was added to the background of a few.
(Because we worked from a nude model in class, some of these may be NSFW.)
I grew to have sort of a love-hate relationship with charcoal during those two semesters. I had used it a bit before, in drawing classes in 2006 & 2007, but had never used it before college. Perhaps more tellingly, after I switched to a Graphic Design and Watercolor major (as opposed to the Drawing major I briefly pursued at the beginning of college), I don't think I used charcoal again. This does not mean I didn't find success with the medium - just that I find graphite pencils and colored pencils easier (and cleaner) to work with. For the same reason, I found myself drawn to watercolor (rather than oil or acrylic paint).
It's not that I don't enjoy getting messy. I do - perhaps a little too much. I'm a bit of a klutz, and have a tendency to not put things away or watch out where things are when I am in the middle of an art project, and with messy media like charcoal or paint it was too easy to 1) get carried away making a mess and 2) make an even bigger mess, accidentally, just because I wasn't watching where I was going.
If I had an entire day to devote to art interrupted, in a space that was reserved only for my art, I might take on a "messier" project. But I usually have to squeeze my art into an hour here, or a few hours there - and I'm wearing my normal clothes, working in a room that is limited on space. I expect to be interrupted by a puppy needing to go outside. It just isn't feasible to make a huge mess when I know I won't have time to properly clean it up.
I had a similar problem in college. Life Drawing was only one of my classes that day, and I would often have a class right after, where I would have to switch from "studio" mode to "taking notes" mode - or "running a study session" mode, which involved using my laptop. I couldn't get charcoal on my laptop, so I had to spend the last ten minutes of class every day thoroughly washing my hands, making sure there were no smears of charcoal on my arms or sleeves or face which could later transfer to my notebook or backpack or laptop. I had to make sure the outside of my portfolio stayed clean, since I had to carry it around campus to my next class. I had to make sure that my charcoal supplies stayed in a different pocket of my backpack from my laptop, so there was no cross-contamination. It was a hassle - not least because lugging all that stuff around gets rather heavy.
That said, it was enjoyable to get my hands messy. Usually drawing is a rather clean activity, and charcoal was a nice change of pace. It's also quick, allowing for large drawings to be completed in a matter of minutes. Each Life Drawing studio class lasted three hours. We would often get 4-10 poses in during that time, depending on how long each pose was.
Here are some of my most successful charcoal drawings. Most are large scale, drawn on 18"x24" paper, or even 22"x30" paper. As per class assignments, some were reworked later, back in my dorm room - colored ink or paint was added to the background of a few.
(Because we worked from a nude model in class, some of these may be NSFW.)
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| Metallic silver ink wash in background |
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