Fog at the distance - A charcoal drawing

"Without good drawing, the foundation of a painting will collapse." Ken Danby

 Today's post is a charcoal drawing of a landscape with fog in the distance and a fence running along in the foreground. The inspiration for this drawing has come from a photograph by Garry Hayes, a geologist who writes a very informative blog Geotripper.com.  I go through his blog frequently and enjoy reading the contents.

I have used Camlin pencil, charcoal powder and willow charcoal to create this artwork. Creating the fog using the different tools was an interesting experience. What I enjoy more than the drawing is the exploring and experimenting that enables me to discover new techniques to handle different elements in a landscape. For example in this painting I needed to create the grass and I wanted a little texture in the foreground. So I used the charcoal powder, the willow charcoal and after a little blending created the strokes of grass. It worked well.

Sharing a beautiful poem that I came across on "The Fog" by Carl Sandberg

The fog comes 

On little cat feet

It sits looking 

Over harbour and city

On silent haunches 

and then moves on

Carl Sandberg

Fog at the distance 

Charcoal drawing on Canson Mi Teintes paper 

Size 5” X 7”

My charcoal tool box is a collection of miscellaneous pencils of different brands which I have been purchasing for the last many years. When you enter an art store and come across something new and different you cannot resist buying it. Many a times it has happened that I have gone and purchased a pencil after reading a whole lot of reviews on the net and yet to my disappointment discovered that it is does not work for my kind of technique. Does this discourage me from buying more pencils? Not at all. I do that even today. It is a small investment compared to the happiness that I achieve by experimenting and exploring which in turn helps me to learn a little on a daily basis.

Frequently used charcoal tools

in my charcoal tool box.

Thank you for browsing through my blog and if you wish to attend my Charcoal drawing workshop, you can register by sending a mail at manjupanchal5@gmail.com

The fog - A Charcoal sketching on Schoeller drawing paper

Shades of grey

The charcoal sketching as below has been created using charcoal powder, willow charcoal and few charcoal pencils. I started this work a few days back but for some reason could not complete it then.

Now taking a break from my pastels, I spent a few hours on it and completed it.

Through this work I wanted to get the feel of the fog at the distance. I have made use of kneaded eraser and my blending tools to keep the distant foliage and trees hazy and sans any details.

For this work I decided to check out "Schoeller paper" which has a smooth textured surface. If it works well for my landscapes then I will include it in my list as a favorite. I have posted earlier about the papers that I presently use for my charcoal artworks and you can CLICK HERE to view them all. 

The Fog

Charcoal sketching on Scholar drawing paper

Size 5"X 7"

Creating this charcoal sketching reminds me of yet another "Foggy landscape" work which I did as a demo work during one of my charcoal workshops in June 2015, and I am posting an image of the same here. The work below was created on Canson c a grain paper.

Charcoal sketching on Canson c a grain paper ( Demo work done in the past )

I have started a few more landscape works on Scholar drawing paper and will be posting them soon.

Thanks for browsing through my works.

An art quote

"Great art picks up where nature ends." Marc Chagall