Step by step - charcoal study sketch of a tree trunk

" Creativity is intelligence having fun." Albert Einstein

Creating a simple value sketch in a short duration of fifteen to twenty minutes helps me to simplify
the painting process. My charcoal sketching workshop is coming up in the next week so I decided to spend some moments with the charcoal medium.

I am posting below two different quick tree trunk sketches that I created using willow charcoal and a normal charcoal pencil. These sketches need to be sprayed with a fixative to avoid the sketching from smudging OR as an alternate solution one can keep it protected under butter paper.

Step 1. Applied willow charcoal and smudged it using finger.

Step 2. Created an outline of the tree trunk.

Step 3. Added the darkest values and the highlights lifted using eraser.

Step 4. Added midvalues using willow charcoal and charcoal pencil. A few

details using eraser and pencil.

Step by step charcoal study sketch

created on Favini paper

Size 4"X 5"

Creating a small sketch helps me understand the steps leading to the final execution of the artwork.

Therefore when I start the sketching on a bigger scale, I don't have to think a lot about the value variations as I have already worked on it earlier itself. Both the tree trunks were captured on my mobile while I was in Lonavala recently.

CLICK HERE to see one of my step by step charcaol sketching that I posted earlier in Jan 2016.

I have lately started using "Willow Charcoal" a lot for my quick sketches as it covers up the paper fast and is easy to blend and control. The only drawback is that it smudges a whole lot. Therefore I avoid using it on my final art work except at places where I need to create foliage etc. I will learn more about it as I continue to use it and explore some other possibilities. The paper I have used for the above sketching is an acid free paper from Italy, Favini.