Monday, May 18, 2009

The Kentucky Mine - Charcoal Sketch

I recently had a chance to revisit my oldest hobby. To draw with pencil on paper. As a child, I would sketch on my notebooks using HB pencils. Over the years, like for most people, this hobby diminished or lets say gave way to other creative outlets. Coming back to pencil drawing seemed very natural to me especially because this time I was well equipped with the inspiration, information, and the tools. Steve Allrich mentioned in his book to practice the drawing on an everyday basis and I finally took the advice last week on.

I used the picture below as the reference photo for the desired sketch



It's been taken from this book. Here is my rough draft where you can see the basic composition is drawn, negative spaces are marked, object of focus is shaded and the background is laid. The tree in the foreground is sketched to a basic silhouette.


This is the final drawing that I think is complete.

The Kentucky Mine north of Sierra City
9" x 12"
Charcoal pencils on paper

Supplies:
General brand HB pencils #2, #4, and #6
Canson brand Premium Cream Medium Tooth paper
Prismacolor brand Fixative


Side by side comparison



Overall I am happy with the output. The composition is right, however, the sketch has varied from the original picture. The mine structure has shrunk considerably. The tree has further moved to the foreground with obvious shade. The dry grass under the tree pushes the mine back into the center. But the idea is, if you hide the photo, and look at the work alone, you can see the mood of very sunny and warm afternoon is well conveyed. And that's all matters.

This was an experiment to judge the contrasts of light and dark and I think, I got that right!

9 comments :

Vinita said...

Wow beautiful sketch! I've been taking drawing lessons and for once I understand the terminology you've used. Beautiful sketch, it does convey the feeling of the original picture.

Bhavna said...

Hello Vinita,

Thanks for your kind words. I now know how much hue variation black and white can render to the drawings. It's absolute fun!

Bhavna

Robin Marie said...

Your drawing looks lovely! I think that so long as your angles are proper and your image is clear, a little variation from the photo isn't such a bad thing!

Kudos on jumping in again! I think I'm going to have to try and work drawing back into my life as well. It's very meditative!

Blueswirly said...

Very beautiful drawing! It has a lot of character. You've given the building an interesting personality.

Theresa said...

lovely drawings!

AndreaInBlue said...

Your work is really lovely!

VictoriaG said...

Love your work, just beautiful! I am so envious of you...drawing is not my strong suit at all, but I love to look at all the lovlies by others...very impressive!

Bhavna said...

Thanks everyone!

Steve Allrich said...

Nice sketch - keep up the good work!

And thanks for the kind words regarding my book.

Steve