r/CharcoalDrawing

Hi friends 😊

I’ve been focusing on my proportions and face planes lately, as a challenge I did a 3 hour study as I tend to take my time since I’m a beginner (been taking my art seriously for around a year now).

Materials - Willow charcoal, charcoal pencil and A3 120gsm paper.

Process - I began by drawing the proportions, in the first hour I checked the proportions using an overlay tool twice. After which I stopped using the overlay tool.

I struggled with the mouth and the eyes, I find it difficult to capture those areas where there are sharp turns and softer plane changes.

I did focus on the face, choosing not to draw in the hat and the rest of the bust was on purpose as I wanted to keep attention on the face.

Any feedback is appreciated!

I can draw a bit with pencils already, and I have tried other mediums. I saw plenty of portraits of artists on instagram that had these very atmospheric drawings. I thought they did it with pencils only and tried to upgrade my skills towards that direction.

But upon discovering this community I realised I was wrong, or at least not quite right.

And well, the thing is that I really want to learn how to draw with charcoal. I have no idea how to start and what to expect. I've seen some amazing pieces here but I'm a little afraid that my skills with the pencil won't transfer properly.

If someone could give me some advices. Like, how precise can you be with charcoal ? Is it so messy that it's hard to control ? And do you have any materials recommendations like types of paper etc ?

Thank you for your attention :)

Hi dear artists, I'm not an artist. But I found a charcoal stick last week and I felt so good using it so I want to draw with charcoal to fill my evenings.

I bought willow charcoal by Marie's and General's black and white pencils. While drawing I felt my charcoal stick barely left a trace on paper. It even scratched the paper when I tried to force darker shadows and lines. I tried to draw over it to maybe add another layer, but then I realized the layer bellow isn't fixed and is getting erased...

So a lot of questions really. Someone mind telling me what am I doing wrong?

What fixatif do you use? I tried the workable fixatif by krylon and it still is smudging.

One of my first charcoal drawings

I do feel like the eyes are not wide enough but it still looks good

Instagram: jakerepsysart

Guess who?