Charcoal

Apples in a Crystal Bowl
(powdered charcoal, 9 x 12 inches)

My daily drawings brought me back to exploring charcoal. This drawing was done entirely with  powdered charcoal and working into it with cue tips, paper towel and a kneaded eraser. The process felt very much like painting rather than drawing. the darkest darks were applied by dipping a paper towel in the powder and then touching it to the drawing.



I looked in one of my drawing books and found a photograph of this subject. (Stan Smith, Complete Drawing & Sketching Course, Reader's Digest, 2001)
I applied an overall wash of charcoal to work into. This time I used vine charcoal to define the darks.

Overcoat (Charcoal, 17 x 14 inches)

Today I blocked in the main shapes on the shelf and then worked back and forth pulling out the lights with an eraser and adding the darks with vine charcoal.

On the Mantel (Charcoal, 8 x 12 inches)

Consider the Lily

Yellow Lilies 1 (14 x 10 inches)

This week I have been working on painting flowers using Reid's approach.

This is my first attempt and I am pleased with the overall composition but the blossoms lack the light, airy feel I was hoping for. They needed to be painted freshly and directly with both lost and found edges.

            Yellow Lilies 2 (stage 1)  (24 x 18 inches)                                    

This painting had a stronger start than finish. I found it very hard to just let things be and lost the lightness again. I would also like to have softened a few more edges to help with the focus of the painting. Perhaps some judicious cropping will help the overall composition. 

More on Edges

Blue Bowl (10 x 14)

This is my most recent painting a la M. Reid. The hard edges out in the light focus the viewer and the variation of the edge quality around the objects and the groups of objects  helps to create depth and dimension. Keeping lots of white in the composition makes for a light and airy feeling.

This is a very different treatment of background than is usual for me. The background objects are included and used to enhance the the lost and found nature of the edges of the foreground subject as well as keeping the whole picture plane interesting.

Lost and Found

Still Life with Mallard (9 x 12 inches)

I did this painting 6 years ago. At the time I was concerned with painting directly, achieving the correct value in the first go. Some edges have been softened but that was not the focus of the exercise.

My present study of Charles Reid's approach to painting is focused on edge control.  

Three Pears (10 x 14 inches)

Edges in the light are hard and defined while the edges on the shadowed side are lost into the cast shadows.The effect is to make the light side come forward and the shadowed side recede.

No parking

Here is another quick study using  a photo from that same painting trip to Brier Island. The background has been greatly simplified to maintain focus on the bicycle. I wish I had softened the back edge of the back tire by blending it into the purple shadow but it is what it is.

No Parking (10 x 14 inches)

Painting on the Edge(s)

Now that the new year is here I have time to indulge myself in experimentation and exploration. I have always admired the work of Charles Reid and Alex Powers. Both of these painters pay particular attention to making a variety of edges  to create depth, movement and focus in their work. Today I started working with Reid's approach to edge control.

I started, as he does, with a loose continuous contour drawing of my subject.

 

As much as possible, draw without lifting the pencil and try to draw shapes not objects. For example, the cast shadows from the figures are drawn as part of the figures and the dark clothing of the more distant figure is delineated only in terms of light and shadowed areas rather than hair, jacket and pants.

I worked from a photo I took on a painting trip with my friend Helen.

                                 A Walk on Brier Island (8 x 8 inches)

This was great fun to paint. I worked on Canson's drawing bristol with a small travel kit of Yarka watercolours. This paper does not allow much reworking or layering of colour. I have kept the light side of the figures hard edged and crisp while the shadowed sides are soft edged, blending in with their surroundings. The result is a loose interpretation of the subject matter and clear representation of the quality of the light and atmosphere of the day.

Look for my daily drawings on the Daily drawings tab at the top of the Blog.