Drawing "An Eye" on Strathmore Toned Gray paper

"Where words are restrained, the eyes often talk a great deal." Samuel Richardson

When drawing a portrait it is imperative to focus on "Eyes". The eyes bring life into the portrait and they express the feelings and emotions the person is going through. Drawing eyes requires a lot of understanding of the underlying bone structure or rather human skull. Hence to get a better understanding of the eye and to try out my newly purchased "Strathmore Toned Gray paper", I decided to do few eye studies on this paper.

The pencils I have used are very soft Camlin Charcoal pencil, and Cretacolour white pastel pencil. Since it is a study work I decided to spend not more than forty minutes on each of them. The gray colour of the paper acts as the mid tone value. To view the other tools that I use for my charcoal drawings you can CLICK HERE.

Two Charcoal drawings of 

An Eye Study

on Strathmore Gray Toned paper

The Strathmore toned paper has a very smooth surface and yet has a little texture which helps the charcoal and pastel to fix on it well. I enjoyed working on this paper. Whenever I buy a new paper I start off with a few study works because it helps me know the feel of it. I try out all my pencils and other related tools to understand what works best on it. 

After having worked with different papers I have come to one very significant conclusion, ie every paper has a different texture and feel and a pencil which may have worked very good on a different paper may now always work on the new one as well. Therefore it is best to read and research through the net and listen to the advise of other artists BUT when it comes to actually using a pencil on a paper, the safest way is to try it out.

A new paper or a new set of colours is always an exciting experience for any artist. These days I do a bit of study myself on the net before going ahead to buy new art stationery. I have already tried Canson MT for similar works and it is very good. However I read a lot of positive reviews about Strathmore paper and fortunately it is available in Art Lounge or it can also be ordered online through Amazon India.

If you wish to purchase any of my original art or Commision a painting, contact me on my e mail id and I shall get back to you as soon as possible.

Thanks to all the viewers who have been consistently browsing through my artworks.