Note to self...... "use lighter colored paper when sketching with vine charcoal...."

Let me just preface this post by apologizing for not posting anything these past few months.  I had a personal loss and have been dealing with the sadness.  I have been unable to paint and I just let it be, knowing that eventually I would come around.  Yesterday seemed to be the day that broke my hiatus.  I somehow was able to find some joy in my art again. 

This was sketched at a portrait workshop last night.  His name is Billy, and I sketched from life, it was done in about 45 minutes.  I started it thinking I would do a full color pastel sketch.  My thought process was to block in the face using darks, to sort of have the image appear using the negative space and dark values.  I've always wanted to try this approach, and I found it is quite difficult yet very effective.   As I progressed I found I liked the vine charcoal and the effect I was getting.  I didn't want to introduce anything else into the mix (like a light colored pastel to show my lights..... sigh....), so I just let it be.  I like the way this turned out despite the fact that the paper I used is a bit too dark (Canson MT is the paper I used.)  Next time I will just decide in the beginning that it will be a charcoal and use a lighter toned paper - in a perfect world anyway... we all know how that goes.  Sometimes when I plan it goes against me.  More often I get these "happy accidents" (thank you Bob Ross, I've always loved that phrase), or serendipity (thank you Richard McKinley, another great descriptive....).  It's a good thing I at least know how I achieved this, sometimes serendipity occurs but the vehicle used to get there remains a mystery....

© by Christine DiMauro, all rights reserved.