Drawing a portrait on Strathmore Toned gray paper

"To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong." Joseph Chilton Pearce

After having done a couple of "Eye Studies", I finally decided to try out a portrait on Strathmore Toned Gray paper. The gray colour of the paper acts as the mid tone value and I have used the white pastel pencil and the charcoal pencil to create the lighter and darker values.

Strathmore toned paper is acid free, has a smooth texture which works well for my portrait works. Moreover the greatest advantage of using a toned paper is that I need a very few tools around which makes my workplace less messy.

The Gaze

Charcoal and pastel drawing on toned paper

Size 4" X 5"

I enjoyed working on Gray Toned paper by Strathmore and would definitely want to use it even in future for my portrait and figurative works. 

Thanks for browsing through my artworks.

Mother Teresa - A charcoal portrait study on toned paper

"Be happy in the moment, that's enough.Each moment is all we need, not more." 

Mother Teresa

A portrait study of "Mother Teresa" created on dark grey handmade paper using charcoal and white pastel pencil. The pencils I normally use on toned paper are Camlin soft charcoal pencil, Cretacolour white pastel pencil and General white pastel pencil.

Mother Teresa
Charcoal and white pastel pencil work on handmade paper
Size 5.5"X 7"

In October 2016, I posted yet another portrait study of "Mother Teresa". I am presently working on a soft pastel landscape work of a scene from Karnala Bird Sanctuary. Will post it soon. My works can now be seen at Instagram.

Thanks for browsing through my works and do write your comments below.

Portrait of a woman on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Portrait sketching in charcoal and white pastel pencil.


The portrait below is a happy smiling face of a young lady from Rajasthan, with a beautiful traditional silver nose ring and a sparkle in her eyes. Each piece of jewelry worn by a woman has its own significance. What I love about the jewelry is its uniqueness and beauty.

To me, portrait sketching is more than just rendering the strokes using different pencils. It is more about capturing the emotion. The most challenging part apart from getting the anatomy right, is to bring life into the face through the eyes. The eyes speak it all.

The smile

Portrait sketch on Canson paper

Size 4.5" X 5.5"

"Drawing is the best way to meditate, while staying connected to the world around us." 

Elsha Leventis

This quote sounds so perfect as I personally believe in every word of it. During my art workshops too I come across participants who share the same feeling. Drawing and painting, they say keeps them busy and happy.

I have my "Two days Charcoal workshop" coming up on the 17th and 18th of this month in which I will be mostly demonstrating landscapes using willow charcoal and other charcoal pencils. I take a very small group of three people so that each participant gets individual attention. If you wish to know more about it you can write to me at manjupanchal@hotmail.com 

Portrait of a woman on toned paper

Of late I have been very busy with my weekend art workshops and I am enjoying them a lot as I am getting to meet people who are as passionate about art as me. Moreover just before the workshop I get to work in that particular medium which is a fresh change for me and it breaks the monotony of working in the same medium for long.

Being too busy with art workshop has however affected my blogging.I am struggling to find time to blog. Last week I took out some time to continue my "Portrait study". The image below is of a beautiful woman from Kutch ( Gujarat ). Absorbed in her own thoughts, with a little smile running across her face. She wears the traditional silver jewelry which gives her a unique identity. The intricate designs of the jewelry fascinate me a lot. 

An Introspection
Charcoal and white pastel pencil study work on hand made paper.
Size 5"X 7"

I got into "Sketching portraits on toned paper" quite recently and am enjoying working on it. Getting all the different values using just two different pencils ie a charcoal pencil and a white pastel pencil is quite a challenge. But the more you work with it the more things get clear and it is fun to explore and experiment. 

To check out some of my earlier portrait works CLICK HERE.

Charcoal portrait work on Canson c a grain paper

I am taking a break from my water soluble graphite works. Not because i am not enjoying
doing it, but I feel the need to use a graphite pencil ( water soluble ) for sharp strokes. I
visited ART LOUNGE recently but did not like the one's which they have. So instead, I have
gone ahead and ordered Cretacolour 8B set of 6 pencils from Amazon.in. There are other
pencils from other brand too but since these are not very expensive and I am on a "TRIAL"stage
I do not mind combining these with my CAMLIN water soluble graphite sticks.

In the meantime, I decided to spend a few hours on an old incomplete work of mine. It is the
portrait of a beautiful young girl from Kutch with her traditional jewellery and a very captivating smile. Years back too I was using Canson c a grain paper, which is acid free and it has a
textured rough surface. I have done a post on the different papers I use for my charcoal
works. CLICK HERE to know more about it.

A smile

Charcoal sketching on Canson c a grain paper

Size 7.5" X 10"

I recently visited ART LOUNGE  which is having its annual sale at

this moment. Will write about ART STATIONERY that I picked up from there in my next post.

Thanks for browsing through my blog.