Shades of grey - More willow charcoal sketches

"Tone is the king, Colour is the mere assistant." Joseph Zbukvik ( Master water colourist )

Statements and Quotes by great artists hold a lot of meaning and it helps you get down to basics.
After having spent years in art I too feel that value and tone is far more important than just colours in a painting. Charcoal and graphite medium are a great way to do value study.

Charcoal medium is very versatile. It can get addictive. I started off with a few landscape study works and wanted to stop after a about having done three or four of them but could not resist doing some more.

Experimenting and exploring is fun. It leads to some new discoveries. It is all very exciting. In fact like I always write in my post, every small work that I do is a "Mini learning lesson" in itself. I make mistakes, then try to rectify them and in doing so learn some valuable things. Given below are some more "Charcoal study sketches" that I created yesterday using my reference photographs from Karnala Bird Sanctuary. ( The last sketch is more out of imagination. )

Study works of landscapes 

Created using willow charcoal

Size 4" X 5"

The top two landscapes are created on cartridge sheet whereas the last one has been done on Canson C a grain paper. The willow charcoal works pretty good on Canson paper. Cartridge sheet is not an acid free paper and over a period of time it is going to turn pale. Therefore I mostly use it for my preliminary works. For someone who is a beginner in charcoal medium, I highly recommend going only for cartridge paper for at least few initial works. 

If you want to know more about the papers I use for my drawing and sketching CLICK HERE. 

Experimenting and exploring - Willow charcoal techniques.

"Choose only one master - Nature." - Rembrandt"

Willow charcoal has been one of the recent additions in my set of "Charcoal tools". I am still in the process of getting to know it better. By repetitive use I will know how and where it works best and fits in my "Charcoal sketching techniques". I have used it lately for my "Quick study works"of forest landscapes and I realised that once broken into small pieces, it can be used like mini soft pastels.

A small piece of willow charcoal when rubbed on the paper surface to create different strokes creates a beautiful texture. It can be blended with finger with different levels of pressure to create the light and dark values.

Given below are three different small study works that I created on ordinary cartridge paper in order to get a better understanding of the tree anatomy, landscape composition and willow charcoal.

Study works of landscapes 

Created using willow charcoal

Size 4" X 5"

I had planned to spend not more than twenty minutes on each of these sketches, however as I was also involved into experimenting and exploring, I spent a little more time on each of them. A new tool, a new technique, it all adds to the excitement and I am now waiting to create a Charcoal sketching where in I can have a "Fusion of willow charcoal and charcoal pencils".

Willow charcoal.

When I first worked with willow charcoal, ( Dec 2014 ) I was not too sure if I will be using it in the long term. It would smudge a lot and create shades of grey, was difficult to control on paper. So it made me feel a little uneasy. It happens all the time. New tool, new pencil, it takes a little time to get used to it. Hence I have decided to go ahead and create a few more sketches which I will be posting very soon. 

Thanks for browsing.