Charcoal drawing on Strathmore gray toned paper

"You never outgrow drawing. It's so fundamental to everything." Debra Groessner

No matter what medium I am into, getting back into drawing and sketching refreshes my creative spirit. As mentioned in the quote above, drawing is fundamental to painting any subject. We paint as we draw. 

The charcoal drawing below is of a group of rocks and pebbles at the seashore. Last time when I handled the same subject I used a cartridge paper. This time, however I decided to use the Strathmore gray toned paper in which the gray colour of the paper acts as the mid tone value and I had to add the darker and lighter values to complete the painting.

Pebbles

Charcoal drawing on Strathmore gray toned paper

Size 4.5" X 5.5"

Posted below is the initial stage of the painting where I have created the outline of the rocks using a graphite pencil and added darker values at certain places.

Initial step

Drawing of pebbles

This is a small charcoal drawing and hence I have used only a charcoal pencil and a white pastel pencil. CLICK HERE to view all the different charcoal tools that I use in order to create a bigger charcoal work. 

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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.

Rocks and pebbles at the beach - A water colour painting

"The only source of knowledge is experience." Albert Einstein

In my last post I mentioned about my newly purchased Arto Campap Cold Pressed paper ( 300 gsm ). I created a small water colour study of "Rocks" on it. I have been photographing close up of rocks since very long but never really got into creating an artwork referring to it. Rocks make an interesting subject to paint as it helps understanding the shape, shadow and textures on its surface.

I kept my water colour palette limited to just three colours, namely burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and paynes grey. Burnt sienna and ultramarine blue when mixed in different proportions create beautiful shades of grey. In fact these two are the maximum used colours in my palette.

Working on textures was lot of fun, though I need to improvise on it. In all this was a quick experimental work and it was an exciting experience. I am waiting to create some more works where in I will get to work on rocks.

Rocks and pebbles

Water colour painting on Arto Campap CP paper

Size 3.5" X 4"

In the past I have created charcoal drawing of "Rocks under the water" using my charcoal tools. 

I do get tempted to pick up my charcoal tools once again and I will do that eventually, however for now I want to spend some more time working with water colour medium.

Thank you all for visiting my blog.