Charlize - Graphite Portrait

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"Charlize"
9.5 x 12
Graphite on newsprint





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Oranges - Graphite Pencil Sketch

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These are three stages of this sketch, made with graphite pencil #2B on newsprint. For a beginner, it's a great medium to practice with.


I loved using graphite because of two reasons: it's easily erasable and it's cheap.

I would like to use charcoal and graphite for future sketches but I'd prefer charcoal. We'll see. If you draw, what's your favorite?

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Indian Woman at Her Loom - Charcoal Sketch

Look closely. This picture had a unique quality - no real focal point for eye's movement. Viewer looks at the woman, the eye travels to the backdrop, rests on the fabric on the loom and gets back to the woman. Isn't that interesting. It was a small colored picture and I thought it would make a great subject for the following reasons:

One, the sunlit woman gives immense opportunity for my favorite light and shadow play. The background is so pitch dark that the picture exudes Sun's warmth.
Two, after the initial sketch, I realized there is no real backdrop in this frame and hence imagination got wings.
Three, I never drew a human in any of my recent works, so I guess that must have guided me to this.
Four, the folds of the fabric are very engaging. So, although there is no real silhouette of the woman and yet the folds convey the shape and the time of the day.

Indian Woman at Her Loom
9" x 12"
Charcoal pencil on paper

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

Afterthoughts

I think it will take me a little while to really appreciate this one for couple or three reasons, as I move forward with charcoal sketches, my own bar is rising. Every piece has to be better than the previous one or atleast the same quality. In this case, I am not so sure what shall I compare this with. I cannot judge it against a landscape (duh!) or with anything I have done before.

I think this one has better sense of reproduction than many others I did. It is, however, the one in which I had hard time figuring out when to stop. I think that eventually happens when artist try to make arrangements.

What do you think?

World Drawing Day

This is what I am working on to celebrate World Drawing Day. I started this piece couple or three days back in a hope to finish it today.




It is of a Tangkhul (Indian) woman at her loom, beginning what will eventually become an exquisite garment.

It's taken from this book.