Back to my sketchbook: charcoal

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Anne deFuria

My 2020 “Pandemic Sketchbook” chronicled my life during the lockdown through the advent of Covid vaccines. In 2021, I started a new sketchbook whose themes were more hopeful, so I didn’t think of it as a pandemic journal. It was just a way of keeping a habit of sketching several times a week. In 2022, I started a third sketchbook, smaller and the paper is best for dry media only. I made several charcoal sketches in early spring based on museum postcards, snapshots from my 1990’s instant camera and other visual cues uncovered while decluttering my house or reading the news.

Small projects after Big Projects: charcoal drawings of wildlife

Posted on June 22, 2022 by Anne deFuria

I usually work on an acrylic painting on canvas at my weekly art class. These painting can take several months to finish. After a lengthy project, I often take a mental break by working on drawings that can be completed in a couple of weeks or so. After wrestling with the adorable snowman still life, which took more time than I had anticipated, I began a series of large charcoal drawings based on my teacher’s photographs of wildlife. These are about 11 x 14 inches on Bristol board, which should be the right proportions for making note cards.

Pandemic Sketchbook: September

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Anne deFuria

Charcoal drawing of a rabbit — Rabbit in my garden, charcoal pencil

Sketching wildlife in black and white brought me back to my Pandemic Sketchbook in September. There seems to be more critters in my yard and neighborhood, or maybe I just have more time to observe nature these days. I did not get to the beach this summer, but painted a gull from a photo I took years ago.

Watercolor of a sea gull — Gull on New Jersey beach, watercolor

Pandemic Sketchbook: self-portrait with bandana

Posted on July 1, 2020 by Anne deFuria

Charcoal Portrait of a woman in a bandana — Self-portrait with bandana, charcoal pencil

This self-portrait is based on a photograph taken by a friend a couple of weeks ago. We were sitting on my front porch where I have two chairs spaced six feet apart. She wore a mask and I wore a bandana out of an excess of caution while we talked.

Keeping a Sketchbook: value studies

Posted on September 18, 2019 by Anne deFuria

This 9 by 12 sketchbook doesn’t travel with me, but stays on my drafting table. The top three sketches were made with a range of pencils from 5B to 5H. What I really needed to punch up the dark values is a super-duper dark, almost charcoal, pencil. So that’s on the art supply shopping list. No matter how many layers I put on, I just could not build up really velvety blacks with my old pencil collection. I don’t like to mix my charcoal pencils with the graphite pencils. They seem to resist each other. The shiny graphite makes a weird base for charcoal. The charcoal just floats on top.

To draw the ducks, my teacher loaned me her darkest pencil. You can see the very dark necks on the ducks are darker than anything in the previous sketches. The finished duckies will star in a future post.

Apple and orange, pencil

Black-eyed Susan, pencil

Daffodils, pencil

Ducks, pencil

Anne deFuria

Drawings, Paintings, Collage

Tag Archives: charcoals