Study sketches using willow charcoal and charcoal powder

Creating small study sketches using charcoal medium

My "Two days charcoal workshop" is coming up this weekend and therefore I decided to do a few study works in charcoal medium. The last time I created a few of them I felt the need to introduce the very dark black tone, which is not easily possible with willow charcoal and charcoal pencil. Therefore in my present sketches I have combined both the willow charcoal and black charcoal powder to get the desired effect. ( Easily available in most of the stationery stores ).

All the sketches below have been created on ordinary white cartridge sheet. These sketches are a bit of speedy works done in a very loose manner. The sole aim of doing these kind of sketches is to get an understanding of new techniques that can be applied in future for improvising on the art work. This time I decided to add a waterfall scene too along with some forest scenes. All the images below are from places that I have visited in the past. 

A scene from Karnala Bird Sanctuary

A tourist point at Mahableshwar

The Abbey waterfalls

I am posting the image of the small bottle which contains charcoal powder in it. I purchased it from ART STATION, a stationery shop close to my residence. The powder is fairly good and I use a piece of old cloth as blender to apply it on the paper. 

Charcoal powder ( Used for creating charcoal sketches )

Quotations by artists inspire me a lot to continue my journey of art. When I come across an interesting one I post it on my blog. The one below is from MAKING A MARK, an interesting art blog.

"I desperately needed something to hold on to, so I held onto my pencil." Joann Sfar

New sketch book with cartridge sheets

"One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with the pencil." Balthus

I recently picked up a sketch book from Art Station, an art stationery shop close to where I stay. It has 4"X 5"cartridge sheets and it seemed perfect for my study works, be it in any medium. To my surprise it worked well for my water colour study sketches. So apart from pencil and charcoal sketches, I am also using it for small water colour paintings.

The sketch book 

The sketch book with one of my water colour study works

What I love about such sketch books is that 

• It gives me the freedom to experiment with the medium. 
• I get to create small landscapes or seascapes selecting subjects which I feel are a little challenging. 
• I get to try out new techniques. If it does not work it does not bother me because I know I can try something else in the next work. 
• Each artwork finishes in about 10 to 15 minutes and it gives me a fair idea as to how the bigger painting will look if I were to enlarge the work. 
• The steps I follow get recorded in my mind like a tape and I can re run it once I am doing the same work on a bigger scale.
• All my works are stored at one place ie in my sketch book itself so that I can browse it even in future at my convenience.

Given below are some of my recent water colour works done in this sketch book. After completing the work, I also make it a point to make a note underneath regarding something new that I tried on that work be it spray technique for foliage, or a different technique for creating the sky.  

Small water colour landscapes on cartridge paper

When I started with the soft pastel landscapes last year, I had followed a similar approach of getting a better understanding of the medium. I would do these thumbnail sketches on small sized canson paper and later use them as reference to create bigger works. My landscapes can be seen HERE.

Thumbnail sketches of landscapes created using soft pastels

My works can be seen on INSTAGRAM and DEVIANTART.