Working from life with different materials today and even a different setup.
I started our life drawing session today as normal with conte charcoal pencils, smooth newsprint and sitting. But after the gestures and a couple 20 minute segments I moved to vine charcoal and Canson paper.
Vine charcoal is MUCH harder to work with, I really felt like I was drawing for the first time. I speculate that the problems I’m having with vine charcoal is mainly because I can’t rest my hand on the paper while I draw. Being able to rest my hand with the conte pencils really allow for a lot more control. The good thing about vine charcoal is that it is a close simulation to oil paint. So my vine charcoal drawings look terrible now, but I’ll continue to work on them until I’m proficient with it.
I also did two drawings while standing instead of sitting. I must say that this was very beneficial to the drawing as I was able to stand back and check my accuracy.
I have to just keep telling myself that it is not about the finished drawing right now but learning the skills. The drawing may look terrible but I’m learning.
