Illustration Friday: soaked

Seeing how the end of the world hasn't panned out today, I might as well post my entry. No colour this time:

(charcoal, A3)

Third portrait in a row. Still not brilliant at doing them, but they are fun to do.

Maybe the hellfire will come later...

Shhh!

(charcoal, A3-ish)

It's oh so quiet.

Earrings

(charcoal, A3)

Keeping it sketchy.

Cat in a hat

Another quick portrait, 20ish minutes, #3 (I think) #4

(charcoal on paper, A3)

I should draw more light-haired people.

IF next, that's if I can get the idea from my imagination onto paper.

Afro

Quick portrait again, in a similar vein to my others (take a reference picture, grab some charcoal, sketch fast, ignore the details). I did this one because the afro is spiffy:

(charcoal on paper, A3)

The proportions are off (the face should be bigger and turned much more to the side) but that wasn't really my concern. I just wanted to draw fast. If I tried to draw it picture perfect then there's really no point in drawing it (/self disclaimer). Again, about 20 minutes on this, maybe 25 with colouring the afro.

The reference I used was of Marsha Hunt. She used to rock a cool afro in the '60s and '70s. Pretty too.

And finally a closeup photo, the full shot doesn't really pick out the different shades of black and grey too well.

 

I might get an A2 pad, A3 feels a little small to do these kind of drawings...

More adventures in charcoal (20 mins, #2)

Another portrait!
Like my last portrait I spent about 20 minutes drawing it, focusing again on the shape and form of the face and hair rather than detail. The charcoal helps enormously with that. It's a pretty good exercise in restraint:

 

(charcoal on paper, A3)

Thanks to the unknown girl who put her picture on the net and ended up on my computer as a reference. I probably should look for some male faces to draw just to mix things up a little, but girls are just nicer to look at.

An A3 scanner would be great for these. Taking photos of a bigger than A4 piece just isn't the same, even after adjusting the tone and colour levels.

(I promise to try my best to not make certain people look fat in their pictures when they aren't at all...)

20 mins

Just a quick portrait done in charcoal.

(charcoal on paper, A3)

This was pretty easy to do. I only spent about 20 minutes on it because I wasn't trying to make it overly detailed. I might make this type of drawing a regular thing (yeah, I've never said that before...). Besides, I need a LOT of practice drawing human form.

Vintage

Another drawing in charcoal.

This time I tried to get the proportions right so that she didn't look like she jumped out of a cartoon. Drawing a different pose also helped. I wanted to draw her whole body, but the paper was too small and I don't think I can capture fine details with charcoal just yet.

Charcoal is so damn messy, but so much fun to play with. OK, time to wipe the dust off my table :)

New medium

2 posts in 1 day? Well, yeah :)

I've always wanted to try drawing with charcoal (drawing on concrete floors and walls excluded). My interest was renewed after watching the title sequence of The Pacific. Now what I've drawn is hardly in the same league as the aforementioned title sequence, but I think still decent for a first try. I also found it much easier to use than soft pastel, probably because it's even softer and monochrome.

I referenced a random picture I found on the internet, so I don't know who the girl is. I was just drawn to her hairstyle and dark hair which translated really well in charcoal. She also looks a bit cartoonish and child-like because I drew her eyes bigger than normal. Yes, I messed up her facial proportions ever so slightly, but we'll call that artistic license :)