Portrait drawing on Strathmore toned paper

"The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create the reality of the same intensity."
Alberto Giacometti

Strathmore 400 series Toned Gray paper is working for me. I am enjoying doing portraits on them. It is a 118 gsm, acid free paper, and is excellent for creating white highlights and dark shadows using graphite and charcoal. So far I have been using this paper for my charcoal and white pastel drawings. However I do plan using graphite pencil for creating my next portrait.

Today I am posting a "Portrait drawing" of a young and beautiful girl, with the traditional white bangles on her hand. She is waiting for the celebrations to begin, all dressed up and ready.

Looking pretty

A charcoal and white pastel drawing

Size 5.5" X 7"

I love doing both "Portraits" and "Landscapes". I do not want to give up on any one of them. It gets very difficult at times to keep pace with both these subjects, but my passion for each of them helps me keep the balance. 

Thanks for visiting my blog and if you wish to purchase any of my works, you can mail me at manjupanchal5@gmail.com and I shall get back to you as soon as possible.

Charcoal and Graphite Portrait drawing of a boy

"I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living."
Robert Henri

Some months back I had purchased Canson Bristol paper from "Art Lounge" with an intention of trying it out for my graphite and charcoal artworks. It is an extra white paper with a very smooth surface. I used it initially to do my "Eye studies" and later started a portrait of a young boy which for various reasons never got completed. Therefore I decided to put in a few hours on it and finally completed it. In this particular drawing I have used a combination of both graphite and charcoal medium.

In conclusion, I love the Canson Bristol paper for its extra white colour. However since I have not worked much on a very smooth surface, I am feeling a bit uneasy at this stage. In fact all the papers that I have used in the past have a textured surface and so I have got very comfortable using them. But at the same time, I do not want to give up on this paper and may try one or two more portraits to make a final conclusion ie to keep it as a preferred choice for future or to let it go.

CLICK HERE to know about the papers that I use for my charcoal drawings.

Young Boy

Charcoal drawing on Canson Bristol paper

Size 5" X 7"

Posted below is the image of the Bristol paper by Canson

I enjoy doing both landscapes and portraits. However landscapes take much lesser time as compared to doing portraits. My portrait drawing happens in stages. I never complete it at one go. I take my time and as and when I am in the right frame of mind, I sit at it and little by little I add the layers. It is interesting to see the portrait develop and when it finally completes it seems like a big achievement. 

 If you wish to purchase any of my artworks, you can browse through them on my INSTAGRAM page. I shall communicate with you regarding the availability of the painting, the shipping procedure and other details.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Charcoal drawing of Pebbles

"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all."

Michelangelo

Many artists believe that value is more important than colour to the design and success of a painting. I have started believing in this theory too. Hence creating a grey scale version of a painting helps me a lot to understand the subject even before I have started the painting process. The advantages of knowing the right values are

• Value helps in creating a focal point within a painting or a drawing
• The human eye is immediately drawn to a light element against a dark element. This creates the focal point of interest.
• Gradations of value help in creating the illusion of depth.
• The light and contrast help to define the form of the subject matter.

"Rocks and pebbles" have always fascinated me as a subject for painting. I created my first "Rocks and pebbles" painting in water colour medium and posted it recently. I enjoyed doing that small little study and decided to try out this subject using charcoal medium too. 

Therefore I hunted out another photograph taken at a beach and went ahead creating the charcoal drawing as given below. This is the fun part of the art journey. It is so full of surprises. You discover new interests, fall in love once again with an old medium and it motivates you further in life.

Pebbles

Charcoal drawing on cartridge sheet

Size 5.5" X 6.5"

Taking a break with a little charcoal artwork has helped me. I intend to continue with my water colour explorations but as and when possible I will try and do a little of my "Charcoals and Pastels" too. I am also into "ART WORKSHOPS" and to know more details regarding the same you can visit my page. Art workshops are fun as it helps me to get connected with art enthusiasts in all age groups. 

Thank you very much for visiting my blog and keep browsing. Do visit my INSTAGRAM page to see my works in charcoals, soft pastels and other mediums.

Charcoal drawing - A scene from Phi Phi Don

"Never let what you cannot do interfere with what you CAN do." John Wooden

Painting in any medium for a very long time can sometimes lead to saturation. A little change is all that is required to freshen up the mind.Therefore I have decided to create a few study works of the "Painting subjects" using willow charcoal and charcoal pencil. Creating a charcoal study does not take much time and moreover I require just a few tools at my workplace.

The landscape scene that I selected for my first charcoal study work is a beautiful early morning view as seen from Phi Phi Don. It was low tide, and the ocean water had current but some low lying water near the shore captured the reflections of the distant mountains. While creating this charcoal drawing I simplified the shapes so as to get a good composition.

At Phi Phi Don

Charcoal study work

Size 5" X 7"

I experimented a lot with willow charcoal last year and it works pretty good in combination with charcoal pencils. CLICK HERE to view some landscape works in the past which were mainly done using willow charcoal. 

Willow charcoal

After creating this charcoal study work I am pretty excited. So the plan now is to do water colour paintings as well as charcoal studies of certain landscapes as and when required. This change in the daily painting routine will also give me an opportunity to explore the charcoal medium further.

Thank you all for visiting my blog and browsing through my artworks. 

A Figurative Charcoal drawing from the past

"As a child I drew like Raphael but it has taken a lifetime for me to draw like a child." 
Pablo Picasso

I have been organising my paintings lately and while doing so came across some of my old artworks created in charcoal medium. When I first began using this medium, I had limited tools, namely charcoal powder and a charcoal pencil named AMBASSADOR. Using these two mark making tools and a set of beautiful tortillons I went on to create many charcoal artworks.

Today I am posting one of the old works, which needed little touch up. It is a charcoal drawing inspired by the loving relationship between father and son. It is the time spent with the children that creates beautiful memories.

Moment of Joy

Charcoal drawing on paper

Size 8" X 10"

I have titled the above painting as "Moment of Joy" because this image conveys a feeling which probably we have all gone through while we were growing up. It evokes our childhood memories and we try to recollect what it was like to be out with parents and the precious moments that we spent with them. Time moves ahead and we are left with these beautiful memories.

I have been juggling between the charcoal and the soft pastel medium. Both are dry mediums and being self taught, I have experimented and explored both and come up with my own way of handling it. As we continuously work with a medium, we develop a mark making technique that keeps evolving with time. The way I create each stroke be it in charcoal or pastel, now defines my works. 

Portrait and figurative works have always appealed to me and I am glad that I am finally making a serious attempt at restarting it. So my paintings now will be inspired by "People and Places". I will continue my landscape painting as well.

Thanks for browsing through my works.

Willow charcoal drawing and sketching - A demo work

"An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision." James McNeill Whistler

Some time back I created a charcoal demo for the participants who were attending my art workshop.

The initial "BLOCK IN" was done using just "willow charcoal".

Once the values were in place, I used the Camlin pencil to create bold marks to create grass keeping in mind the pressure as I receded in the background. I find willow charcoal extremely useful to create quick charcoal study works.

Charcoal study work ( wetlands ) on cartridge sheet

Size 12"X 16"

I am also posting an image of the charcoal drawing in its initial stages when I have used only willow charcoal to set the values in place.

Willow charcoal work on Cartridge paper

 The willow charcoal as used by me

Every time I create a charcoal landscape, I experiment a little. I try out some new technique. The idea is to get the right effect that I am looking for. It could be texture or background, or a different kind of foliage. It is lot of fun. There is always an excitement about the outcome. Every time I create an artwork, I learn something new. So it is very interesting ie drawing, painting and learning all at the same time.

CLICK HERE to view the tools that I use to create my charcoal drawings.

My Coorg Soft pastel landscape is almost done and I am also starting new pastel works sized 

11"X 15". Will be posting the completed work soon.

More Pencil drawings in my sketch book

"A true artist is not the one who is inspired, but one who inspires others." Salvador Dali

If you have been following my posts you will know that some time back I started off small pencil drawings in my sketch book, which has forty cartridge sheets in it. In the last few days I managed to add a few more in the same book. Some of these are demo works that I created for two participants who attended my ART WORKSHOP. ( Pencil/Graphite drawing )

Since these are more of study works, I normally decide on spending not more than twenty minutes on each of them but it never really happens this way. Most of the times I get carried away and I want to do just a little more of detailing here and there and then I realise that I am actually spending more than thirty minutes on some of them. But it is fun. I create these when I am done with all my serious artwork and have a few minutes to myself to experiment and explore some new subject. This is also a great way of doing value studies. 

Pencil drawings in my sketch book

Each sketch is sized 4" X 5.5"

Presently I am working on my Coorg Pastel Landscape which is almost complete. The next step is to photograph it, edit it and then post it. I am also posting my old as well as new works now on

INSTAGRAM. 

If you like my artworks and techniques please do share it with friends. Thanks for stopping by.

Step by Step - Charcoal demo of a landscape during an art workshop

 "I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do." Leonardo Da Vinci

During one of my "Two days Charcoal workshop" I created a 12" X 16" quick charcoal sketching on cartridge paper. The reference photograph has been taken from"Geotripper" with prior permission from Garry Hayes ( Geologist ). I love the blog as it has some of the most inspiring photographs of nature and the posts are very very informative.

Charcoal landscape drawing

Demo work on cartridge sheet

Size 12" X 16"

Step 1

Using willow charcoal, blocked in the major shapes.

The sky was kept very light using my blending tool ( Cloth )

Step 2

Blending the willow charcoal

and adding strokes using pencil to show crevices.

Foliage was created using willow charcoal

and pencils.

This kind of a demo takes about forty to forty five minutes. The time is not enough to do the details but the demo helps in understanding the steps involved in creating a charcoal landscape painting and the techniques involved in creating it.

CLICK HERE to read through another post in which I posted about my step by step creating of charcoal art in my sketch book.

You can browse my works on Deviantart, Instagram and Facebook.

Thanks for visiting my blog and would love to read comments from you.

Three steps to creating a charcoal study work ( Travel sketch book )

As mentioned in my earlier posts I am regularly creating small study sketches in
charcoal medium. This time around I decided to share it on my blog. I have put three images
of my charcoal sketch which were taken as the sketching progressed.

The size is 4" X 5", paper used is Canson c a grain and the subject chosen is my all time favourite "Tree Trunk"

Three steps to creating a Charcoal study work

In the first image I have rubbed the willow charcoal by laying it flat on the paper and then using my finger I spread it uniformly all over to create a mid tone grey value. Then using a Camel soft charcoal pencil I created faint outline of the basic shape of the tree trunk.

In the second image, I added shadows on the tree trunk and lifted charcoal from certain areas to create highlights. I also used the kneaded eraser to create few leaves.

In the final image I added a few details on the tree trunk and added more foliage on the tree using scumbling effect as created by Camel pencil. The leaves receiving the light from left, were created by lifting out the charcoal using kneaded eraser.

The tools used to create the above sketching.

How to use the kneaded eraser? Watch the VIDEO

Courtesy : Youtube

Charcoal drawing of a bird in flight

"I don't say everything, but I paint everything." Pablo Picasso

The image below is a charcoal drawing of a bird in flight. I created this work quite some time back on Scholar drawing paper using a black charcoal pencil by Ambassador. I cannot find this pencil in any of the stationery stores these days.

Presently I am using Camlin soft charcoal pencil and charcoal powder for most of my charcoal art works.

Bird in flight

Charcoal painting on Scholar drawing paper

Size 7" x 10"

My works can be seen on INSTAGRAM and DEVIANTART too.