Wrapping it Up

After nearly one and a half months, my vine charcoal dual-portrait commission is nearly finished. All told, the piece comprised about twenty-plus hours of solid drawing time interspersed with plenty of standing back and staring at it for a while. As my drawing skills have progressed, I’ve found this to be a very important part of the process. I think working on the Bargue plates has been the greatest boon to my skills, in that it has taught me patience. It taught me to make some marks, then step back, observe, compare, correct, and repeat. Every time I finish a new and more challenging piece, I’m reminded of just how much I’ve learned from my introductory work on the Bargue course. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in seriously pursuing representational fine art.

a bunch of sharpened charcoal sticks - ready to go

Ok – getting back to the subject at hand, I found this drawing to progress rather well. Starting out is always the hardest part for me because my evil impatient nature has to be tempered as I do the labor-intensive work of blocking in all of the darkest darks with soft charcoal. My instinct is to head straight-away into rendering, but the natural progression must be followed if the drawing is to turn out correctly.

New Materials

My weapon of choice for this piece was the new Grumbacher vine charcoal. I had heard about it and seen it advertised and had high hopes that it wouldn’t let me down. My professional review – the extra-soft sticks were awfully thin and I had to be extra careful not to break them as I worked. Also, there seemed to be a lot of hard spots in multiple sticks that I tried, which is the most frustrating thing one can encounter when trying to work with vine charcoal. They did, however, achieve a darker tone than I was able to get in my drawing of the Indonesian Children with Windsor & Newton’s extra-soft vine charcoal. There didn’t appear to be a lot of difference between the soft and medium density sticks in regard to their working properties, but they had a nice thickness and were fairly consistent. I employed the hard density sticks the most with this piece, and I found them to be truly wonderful to work with. They sharpened nicely and didn’t wear down too quickly. I found that if I worked with a rotation of 4 sharpened sticks, it would give me enough time to work through a particular passage until it was time that I should stop and observe for a while. I was able to work up some really nice subtle tones in Kirsten’s arms and t-shirt with the hard density sticks.

blocking in the darkest tones first

I found that a good method to slowly build up tone is to lay down some light strokes with hard charcoal and then brush it with a small bristle fan-brush. Again – patience is the key here… The strokes should be laid down very lightly and then brushed lightly. This process has to be repeated multiple times to build up subtle tones, but it really works – especially on surfaces that should have a smooth texture, like skin or cloth. A note of caution, however: avoid brushing over the darkest areas. The soft and extra-soft charcoal doesn’t blend into the paper – it just brushes right off… After that, it’s impossible to build the darks back up to where you began unless you spray your drawing with a workable fixative. And then, in my opinion, it just doesn’t look as good. Also, it’s a good idea to use this technique sparingly – that is, only on smooth textures within the drawing. It can look a bit overdone if used throughout the whole piece.

New Challenges

This drawing was a “next-step” test for me. I had never done a dual-portrait, nor had I attempted to draw someone with a lettered t-shirt. In this case, those letters were very important, too, because they help to tell the “story” of the piece, so they had to be well done and readable. One of my biggest worries going into the project was how to make the picture of Jimmy Fallon appear to be a flat image hanging on the wall behind Kirsten. I knew that I would have to compress the value range in order to achieve this visually. As it turned out, it was a lot easier than I had imagined. I had begun making the darkest marks with extra-soft charcoal, but then decided to brush it off and render his entire portrait in hard charcoal only. This immediately solved the value-range issue and actually helped the drawing to progress much faster.

My model, Kirsten, and her family were a delight to work with. I’m hoping the drawing has captured a little of her fun, free-spirited and slightly devious nature. I can’t wait for her to see the finished piece. One of my favorite things about doing portraits is the challenge of understanding a person and then trying to convey their spirit and the depth of their character on paper. Most of all, there is great satisfaction in producing something for a family that will be handed down through generations to come. I think I’ve found my niche…

the finished piece - Kirsten & Jimmy, 18" x 24", vine charcoal on tinted paper

A Commission with a Twist…

Kirsten meets Jimmy

You know, sometimes life throws us some delightfully unexpected turns… Take, for instance, the current project I’m working on… Recently, a colleague of mine was sharing with me about her daughter Kirsten’s love of the late night TV host (and former Saturday Night Live notable) Jimmy Fallon. She had taken her daughter to New York to attend a taping of his show, where her wildest dream came true – Jimmy came up into the audience after the show, shook her hand and then hugged her. Needless to say, it made Kirsten’s day, month, year, and quite possibly decade!

Her mom had seen some of my Photoshop work and wondered about the possibility of having an image produced with her daughter and Jimmy together in a montage (a birthday gift for a Jimmy super-fan!). After thinking about it for a while, I suggested a dual-portrait with some sort of clever composition that would give her daughter exactly what she wanted, but also go easy on the cheese-factor. (I do have my pride, after all…) In return, she would have a hand-rendered piece of fine art that could be cherished for generations and would: a) make Kirsten happy because she had a picture of herself and Jimmy; b) make her mother happy because it will be a beautiful portrait of her daughter that doesn’t scream “I’m stalking Jimmy Fallon”; and c) make the artist (me) happy because I would get to practice my craft, and with a great family, and Kirsten – a very beautiful, funny, and quick-witted subject. Oh, and did I mention that I would actually get paid??? Who would have thought you could make money in the art business?!

the infamous photo

Kirsten obliged me by posing for portrait photographs and then sharing some of her favorite photos of Jimmy. We arrived at what she confessed was her all-time favorite photo of him, which was promptly selected for inclusion in the dual-portrait. Now far be it from me to impugn the thinking of a 15 year-old girl, but I had to chuckle at the photo she chose. In said photo, Jimmy stares at the camera with a blank expression, hair unkempt, his face lathered with shaving cream. He looks as if he has just rolled out of bed after a late-night bender (he’s still wearing a suit) and is having his morning shave… It’s the look that so many of us guys have in the morning – staring at ourselves in the mirror, trying to collect our thoughts and shake the sleep out of our head enough so that we feel safe scraping a razor blade across our face… This is not a moment we would normally consider a “photo-op”… Although, Jimmy seems to have that charm and baby-face appearance that so many of us guys do not possess. It could well have been a photo of him waking up in a pool of his own vomit, and still the young girls would gush over him…

the proposed composition

But enough ranting… I went home and immediately began working on a composition. Photoshop is a great time-saving ally in finding the perfect composition for my work, and I always try to follow the old-school rules of how to arrange the picture plane, even though I’m utilizing modern technology. After I’ve gotten a rough mock-up finished, I e-mail it to the client for approval before I begin working. Kirsten and her mom both loved it and immediately gave me approval to move forward. Did I mention how much I like these clients???

Rolling Up the Sleeves

As I begin the portrait, I follow the method I described ad nauseum in my post on the drawing of the Indonesian children. My final drawing will be 18″ x 24″, so I again use a Dürer grid to help me transfer a line drawing of my composition onto a full-size sheet of vellum. This drawing will be rather tricky for a couple of reasons: a) it’s a dual portrait (I’m a glutton for punishment); b) if you study the composition photo closely, you’ll see that the drawing is to depict Kirsten sitting in front of a poster-sized image of Jimmy… Since the drawing is to depict a three-dimensional subject (Kirsten) sitting in front of a two-dimensional photograph (Jimmy) it will call for careful attentiveness to the value-range of charcoal I use for each. I don’t necessarily want this to come across as a trompe l’oeil, wherein Jimmy appears ready to jump out of the drawing and yell “LIVE FROM NEW YORK… IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!!!” That said, I’m thinking that a smaller range of values will be more appropriate to “flatten” the image of Jimmy against the wall behind Kirsten. This will be equally tricky with vine charcoal, since it already has a more limited value range than compressed charcoal or oil paint (did I mention that I’m a glutton for punishment?)… Ah well, all the better to challenge myself with things that nobody will ever notice but me…

the finished line drawing (the lettering took hours!)

After my line drawing is complete, I again make use of my charcoal shavings from earlier drawings by dumping some out on the back-side of my line drawing, rubbing it around with a paper towel, and then using it to transfer my line drawing onto the final paper. For this piece, I’ve selected a brownish-gray sheet of heavy 19″ x 25″ Canson Mi-Tientes. The only other charcoal paper I’ve experimented with thus far is Strathmore. It’s not bad, but I like the heavier thickness of the Mi-Tientes, and I also think it makes for a nicer presentation to the client.

Now the drawing is transferred and I’m ready to begin the actual rendering. Better get the kettle on…

the transferred line drawing - now the fun can begin!

To be continued…

Another Experiment

With the Christmas holiday fast approaching, I was blessed with a great excuse to stay indoors and draw, which came in the form of twelve inches of snow in the Philadelphia region. So, instead of finishing up my last-minute shopping, I spent the weekend hunched over a drawing board working on another small charcoal drawing.

I had discovered the importance of surface texture in charcoal while working on my previous drawing of the old lock. With those thoughts fresh in mind, I moved straightaway into a new drawing of a magnolia flower. Given the delicate nature and texture of the flower and the smoothness of the leaves, I decided to use bristolboard, a smooth, white, hot-pressed cover-weight paper. Having never done a charcoal on bristol, I first did some doodling on a small scrap piece to make sure the charcoal would adhere properly and would go dark enough.

The Berol charcoal pencils have a small amount of wax added which helps with surface adhesion, but I also discovered that it creates a shiny buildup over time, and eventually won’t take any more layering of the charcoal. This was easily overcome by applying a coating of workable fixative, which restored the tooth to the paper and allowed me to go heavier and darker in the darkest areas.

The real challenge here was trying to hide the lines. I knew that this drawing would require more blending than any I had done previously – both because of the subject matter, and because I was again working on a small surface (5″ x 7″). As I worked, I discovered a method that seemed to work nicely and slowly build up the surface quality I was looking for. I would start with a layer of black charcoal, then blend it with a paper tortillion (I think the tortillions work better than stomps for whatever reason…). On the flower petals that were in shadow I would then add a layer of white charcoal over the shadow areas and carfully blend it. Then I would go back over with black charcoal, blend, and then repeat the whole process again until I felt the shadows were correct. The lightest lights were the bare paper, and I had to take great care with my edges, where a dark shadow met a highlight, so as not to accidentally bleed charcoal into the white space.

Overall, I was pleased with the drawing, although it took much longer than I had originally expected. This was due mainly to the fact that it took a long time to build up the darksand keep a smooth surface. In the future I think I will probably stick with charcoal paper rather than bristol. I couldn’t imagine doing a large drawing using this process, no matter how patient I think I’ve become! The scan below shows a lot more line-work than is visible on the actual drawing, but this is mostly due to the nature of light in a scanner. The finished piece has a very nice smooth and delicate appearance.

the finished drawing

This is most likely my last post of 2009, so I would like to say THANK YOU to everyone who has followed along on my journey and left encouraging comments. This has been a real motivation for me, and has helped me keep my skills fresh and continuously growing. It began with the Bargue Drawing Course, which forced me to slow down and taught me to observe more carefully before making a mark on the paper. In just six months I have found that I’m much more confident in my ability to accurately represent something on the drawing board or the canvas. I hope that the posts here have been somewhat helpful to those who are also seeking to grow as artists, in light of, and in respect to all of the other obligations that we must meet in our daily lives. Thanks again, and may your holiday season be filled with peace and happiness!

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Tis the Season

With Christmas just around the corner, I’ve been busy working on the first of a few gift drawings. Having just finished my vine charcoal drawing from the previous post, my head was fully in charcoal mode and ready to keep going with another drawing. This particular piece is for an art exchange at my local art league and had to meet certain parameters  – an approximate size of 5″ x 7″ which is much smaller than I prefer to work. Due to the size restrictions, I chose to work with charcoal pencils in order to have a finer point while working.

Starting with General’s charcoal pencils, I quickly abandoned them after many frustrating attempts to sharpen them. Honestly – if these things cannot be sharpened with a brand new hand-held sharpener without the lead breaking, then I just fail to see the point in making and/or using them, and feel that General’s should address the problem. Thankfully, I had a few Berol charcoal pencils that I bought in college but hardly ever used. These are the kind with the string buried in the shaft that you pull – and then peel off the layers of paper when you need more charcoal exposed. I found that I could get a nice long tip with these that I could then sharpen on my sandpaper sharpening block (my new favorite way to sharpen anything). They’re pretty strong, too. I began with a medium to lay in the darkest darks, then switched to a hard for most of the drawing. The hard gave me a nice range of values and I found the wood textures on the door much easier to render than I expected. To finish it out, I used a General’s white charcoal pencil (this one worked just fine) and laid in the highlights as well as the light metal tones on the lock.

A relatively simple drawing, this only took me about four to five hours from start to finish. I think the texture of the paper is a little too noticeable, but this is to be expected working with charcoal at such a small size. Overall, I’m fairly pleased with it and feel it is a gift that I can be proud to give away – which, in the end, is the most important thing!

the finished drawing - black & white charcoal on gray canson paper

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Hello friends. At long last I was able to get back into the studio (a.k.a. – the corner of my bedroom) and revisit the vine charcoal drawing I’ve been working on since September. Fall is the busiest season at my company – October in particular – and things have finally begun to quiet down enough that I can concentrate on other pursuits outside of work. Today I was very happy to be able to put in 6 solid hours of drawing – enough to bring my current piece to completion.

today's starting point

In my last entry, I discussed some of the problems that I was encountering with the Windsor & Newton vine charcoal – mainly the medium density being too soft (making very dark lines) and the hard density being almost too hard (sometimes barely making a line at all!). These problems persisted, even after testing out several medium and hard sticks to see if perhaps I had merely gotten hold of a bad batch. Perhaps on my next drawing I’ll try another brand… Regardless of these slight difficulties, I found most of my success in using the hard sticks and being extremely patient – slowly building up tone. More than once today I thought I just couldn’t take shading that little girl’s arm anymore and was ready to call it quits. Thankfully, my wife talked some sense into me and urged me to be patient and do it right, rather than settle with less than my best effort.

Today I decided to try some blending techniques. Originally, I had intended not to, but due to a mistake that I discovered after beginning the drawing I thought it best to blend the charcoal to achieve the desired results. What was the mistake? I used the wrong side of the paper. Yep… Hey, how was I to know that the good folks at Canson Paper make one side of their Mi-Tientes charcoal paper smoother than the other side? This was pointed out to me by Mr. Darren Rousar, author of Cast Drawing Using the Sight-Size Approach. Thanks so much, Mr. Rousar, for your keen observation – I may have gone on indefinitely wondering why my drawings were showing so much more of a pattern than other works I’ve seen done on the same paper!

Anyway, in order to fill in some of the pattern holes, I used a small, cheap hobby brush with synthetic bristles to wipe around some of my darkest background areas. This worked pretty well, although I had to be careful not to get too cavalier with my brushing, as it was very easy to take too much off the paper. For smaller areas with fine detail, I found a combination of kneaded eraser and chamois to be more suitable. In the end, the detail areas can’t have much blending, unless you’re using a paper stomp. I haven’t had much success with stomps in the past, so I didn’t bother going that direction.

After I had the charcoal built up as much as I felt it could be, I then heightened the drawing with a General’s white charcoal pencil. This ended up being a very tricky process and I accidentally discovered a good way to use it without having it completely throw off the contrast of my drawing. Actually, I’m most thankful that I didn’t completely ruin my drawing with it, as I was having some panic moments while first laying it down. The white charcoal goes down very robustly, even while using light pressure. This, in turn, made my drawing look a bit disjointed. The highlights were becoming too light and I was losing my illusion of reality. I found that if I began to erase the white charcoal with the kneaded eraser, it erased a little, but also blended a little, toning down the highlights quite a bit. This was unexpected, but I found that if I was very careful, I could control the highlights fairly well using this method. After blending/erasing a bit, it is necessary to go back to the same spot with a hard charcoal stick and blend the edges (to contour the form properly).

For the little girl’s dress, I completely covered the area with white charcoal, then blended the larger areas with a chamois. I then used my kneaded eraser in a reductive fashion to pull out some of the shadows in the folds of the dress. These were later reinforced with very light shading from a hard charcoal stick.

At this point, the drawing looked to be pretty well finished. Therefore, I did the next appropriate step – I went out for a coffee and read for a couple of hours. Upon returning, I discovered some tiny details that needed to be added, minor corrections that needed to be made, etc. Now it’s finished! As always, I see some areas that need to be improved and there are some wonderful subtleties in the white dress that the camera just can’t reproduce. However, I’m fairly pleased with my first attempt at vine charcoals. Enjoy!

the finished drawing - Two Indonesian Children

Picking Up Where I Left Off

Greetings to you, my faithful readers! Being on vacation for the past week (ah, so nice…), I wanted to take some time tonight to put up a short post since I haven’t done so in a while. Before I left, I had done about 2 hours worth of work on the drawing from my previous post. This is the first drawing I’ve ever done completely in vine charcoal, so I’ve been putting all of my acquired book-knowledge to practical use. As with many things, however, there is no better teacher than experience and I’ve learned quite a bit about the performance of the charcoal since I’ve begun – some good things, and some annoying things…

Following the advice from some of the books I’ve read on the subject, I began the drawing by laying in the darkest darks with soft vine charcoal. Windsor & Newton carries four densities of vine charcoal – hard, medium, soft, and extra-soft. I began with extra-soft, but soon gave it up because of the frequency of which it needed to be re-sharpened. It was only possible to make a few marks or lines on the paper before the tip would disappear, sacrificing the control I had over the marks I was making. I had a much better go of it with the regular soft charcoal.

first session - lay-in of the darkest darks

Since my background is to be very dark towards the bottom of the picture, I began building up these darks first. The strokes of charcoal were laid down in one direction – not back and forth like I would normally do with pencil. The first thing I noticed in building up dark areas was the saturation of charcoal on the paper. It’s essential to blow off the excess charcoal every once and a while and then continue building up the darks. After what seemed like an eternity, I had most of the background filled in with a first-layer of charcoal. I was a little concerned because it didn’t look especially pretty… The charcoal marks kind of looked like a rat’s nest of lines. Given time and patience building up layers, however, I see that the individual marks begin to disappear and the dark areas become more unified. Varying the angle of the charcoal strokes also helps to fill in some of the uncoated paper as well.

Next, I continued using my soft charcoal to fill in the darkest shadows of the picture. While doing this, I found that I had to make many critical decisions along the way. There were certain areas that seemed fairly dark, but I tried to only use the soft charcoal on the absolute darkest shadows, as I feel that I will have more control if I build some of the other shadows up slowly with medium or hard charcoal.

Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty

Last night I began my second drawing session with medium-density vine charcoal. I had a slight bit of disappointment with it. When trying to lay in some of the mid-tone shadows, I noticed that it went down much darker than I had anticipated. Not only that, but it was actually difficult to keep light – even when applying very little pressure. After adding some into the background gradient, I decided to try out the hard charcoal on the faces, as I didn’t want to work on them without feeling like I had sufficient control over my materials.

I noticed almost the exact opposite problem with the hard charcoal. While it maintains it’s tip for quite some time, I found that it was difficult to get a consistent line. Being mindful not to damage my paper, I tried not to use too much pressure. Sometimes I would hit a “sweet spot” on the charcoal stick that would give me consistent lines for a while, and then I would hit a hard spot that didn’t seem to lay down anything. I’m using a mahl stick to steady my hand while I draw, and I especially noticed this problem with it because of the angle that the charcoal touches the paper – a little more perpendicular than when drawing freehand. Some thoughts that I’ve had regarding this are that it could be the irregularities of the individual charcoal sticks. I suppose that some of them could be harder or softer than others, but generally classified into W&N’s four densities. After all – this is burnt wood we’re talking about here… I would imagine there has to be some variance from time to time. Also, I would like to try vine charcoal produced by some other manufacturers and compare/contrast a bit, too.

session 2 - beginning to build up medium shadows

Regardless of difficulties, I managed to get some detail work done on the faces in about two hours worth of drawing time. Before I do any more work on them, I need to go over the rest of the surface so as to not over-develop any one area of the drawing at once. A drawing must be brought slowly and consistently throughout the whole picture. More coming soon…

A Boot-Maker With No Boots…

Since late June I’ve been working through the Bargue course as well as the painting from the previous post, “Oil Painting – More Progress”. My work on the Bargue course is, of necessity and design, a long-term project that will likely last some years. At the same time, my painting is progressing slowly – also out of necessity. Wouldn’t want to screw it up by rushing, would I? Anyway, I’ve got the opportunity to exhibit with the local art organizations this Fall, but am sadly lacking any new finished pieces to show. With this in mind, I decided to begin a new drawing in the hopes of having it ready for any upcoming shows in which I would like to participate.

While I feel that it’s important to have my work out in the public eye, I’m nowhere near being ready to “exhibit” yet. Two years ago I set out with the goal to build up a body of work for this purpose, but along the way I learned some important lessons about myself and my abilities, read lots of books, and expanded my knowledge of the craft of drawing and oil painting. Naturally, this has led me to experiment with new techniques, change my artistic direction and develop new goals. So, for now the exhibiting will have to wait…

A Lingering Inspiration

the original photograph

In 2004, an acquaintance of mine was traveling in Indonesia and snapped a photo of a big group of children that he later e-mailed me. I’ve always loved this photo, and was particularly fond of how he captured the girl in the center holding the baby in her arms. She has a wonderful smile on her face, and the baby’s expression is a picture of pure innocence. I had always thought it would make a nice drawing, but never got around to planning it out. Now it will finally come to fruition!

The Process

To organize my thoughts and decide how to approach this subject, I utilized my graphic design skills and worked with the image in Photoshop to do some quick problem-solving. This is an extremely “busy” image, so after deciding on cropping, the size of the drawing, etc., I then erased out all the unnecessary background info and “faked in” the area of the girl’s shoulder that is obscured by the other girl waving in the foreground.  I then threw in a background gradient which I had been envisioning for the finished drawing to give it some depth.

Now the image needs to be transferred onto the drawing paper at the correct size. I have chosen to work with charcoal on a piece of light-gray Canson Mi-Tientes charcoal paper. However, I won’t even touch my final paper until I have the drawing clearly mapped out to the proper scale first. The image will be 11″ x 14″ to be placed in a 16″ x 20″ frame (planning this from the beginning makes it much easier to find a frame that will fit your budget when the work is complete).

Dürer's "Perspective Machine"

To scale the image up to 11″ x 14″ I will use the “Dürer Grid” – so named because of a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer from 1525 that depicts a draughtsman using a wooden grid device to draw a foreshortened view of his subject. This is one of the simplest ways to scale your drawing to your chosen size. You’ll notice in the woodcut that the artist has a small obelisk sitting on the table in front of him. By always keeping his right eye in line with the point of the obelisk, he assures that his view of the 3-dimensional scene will not change. I don’t have to worry about that with my drawing since I’m working from a flat reference photo. All I need to do is make sure that the grid that I put over my photo corresponds to the grid that I draw on my paper.

the "Dürer grid"

For this first step, I will work in graphite pencil on a sheet of tracing paper (you can use any thin paper for this step). I don’t wish to draw a grid on my final paper, as it will cause unnecessary marks that will have to be erased. By completing this step on the tracing paper, I can then transfer it easily to my final paper.

I have divided my 11″ x 14″ picture plane into half-inch intervals for the sake of simplicity. Of course, your grid can be much larger if you prefer, but I normally use a tight grid since I primarily draw people – wherein I need to make sure I attain a good likeness. The tighter the grid, the less room for error…

the line drawing (with white paper underneath for clarity)

The line drawing is completed in about 1-2 hours and I’m now ready to transfer it to the final paper.

If this were a 19th century academic painting, we would call the tracing paper line drawing a cartoon – a full-size preliminary drawing done as a preparation for the final piece (usually an oil painting). One way the masters used to transfer their drawing from the cartoon to the canvas was called pouncing, which involved poking pin-holes along major lines in the drawing, laying it over the primed painting surface, and tapping it with a little pouch of cheesecloth filled with charcoal powder. The powder would leave an impression along the pin-hole lines on the canvas allowing the painter to then begin drawing in the composition with thinned oil paint.

Another method is to rub charcoal dust on the back of your cartoon, place it over your painting surface, and simply trace over the lines lightly, leaving a charcoal impression of the drawing behind.

Yet another method is a modern alternative – transfer paper. Transfer paper looks very similar to wax paper and has one side coated in a dusting of pigment (it comes in a variety of colors). Again, if the artist places this between his painting substrate and the cartoon, he can simply trace over the line drawing to transfer it.

I’ll be using the second method mentioned above – a rubbing of charcoal dust on the back of my cartoon. If you remember my fabulously popular post on how to sharpen vine charcoal, you’ll remember that I mentioned the importance of saving your charcoal dust for later use. Here is a fine example. Never throw away any useful art supply! After sparingly pouring some out on the back, I rubbed it around with a paper towel to coat the paper.

Next, all I need to do is lay it over my piece of charcoal paper, trace the lines, and my drawing is transferred. Easy! Now I’m ready to begin the best part – the actual drawing (it’s about time)!

To be continued…

It’s now been one month since I began this blog and I’m delighted to see how much it has helped me so far. My primary reason for developing it was to have a strong motivator to keep me moving through the Bargue course. My first priority is to do the course correctly – avoiding the mistakes that come from impatience and a “good enough” attitude towards my work. I knew this would prolong what is already a very long course of study (especially for those of us who can’t work in the studio everyday), so I figured why not put my progression on the world stage and provide some support and motivation for others out there who dream of being a skilled artist, but are trying to balance a job, a family, or both. Hopefully those seeds of encouragement that I’ve sown will produce a crop over time. And – regarding that “good enough” attitude that runs rampant in the world – if any of us want to become excellent at what we do, we must begin now, and not accept poor results when we know we have the potential to do better. This boils down to plain old laziness – one of the evils we must overcome in our pursuit of excellence. Ok, enough preaching for now. Let’s get down to business…

Bargue 1.7

bargue plate 1.7

I completed this drawing tonight in about 1.5 hours. I was happy to see that it turned out to be very accurate, barring a crooked line here or there, of course… This drawing is a tricky one. The overall shape is tall and narrow, which I feared would make the reference points harder to place using the sight-size method. Perhaps this was a healthy fear, because it made me check and double-check every point I marked at the beginning of the drawing (before I actually drew any lines). The finished drawing matched the transparency overlay of the original very closely, so I considered it to be a success, but not quite as much as plate 1.6 was. I had to erase a lot of lines that were either curving the wrong way, too much, or not enough, which made the finished drawing a rather smudgy mess. Again, line thickness played a big part in getting a better resemblance of the original.

The Process

I’ve decided to show the steps I took to complete plate 1.7 this evening, as the last instructional post I wrote, “How to Sharpen Vine Charcoal”, elicited a number of appreciative comments from those of you who have been following along.

Step 1 – The Setup

the setup with a fresh piece of paper ready to go

In preparation for beginning the Bargue course, I purchased some high-density fiberboard at a hardware store and had it cut to 20″ x 26″ to accommodate drawings up to 18″ x 24″ – a size that I wanted to work in. Whenever I’m working on drawings I put this board up on my easel so I can stand up to draw – something I had never tried until this past winter. Now that I’m used to it, I can’t imagine sitting down to draw ever again! Anyway, I then tape a copy of the plate to the left side my board at eye-level, using my plumb line to make sure it is straight vertically. For a plumb line, I use a length of black thread with a 5/8″ metal nut tied to one end. Once I have the copy in place, I tape my blank piece of charcoal paper up beside it so that the edge of the paper slightly overlaps the copy. When working sight-size, it is best to cover up distracting visuals (like a gap between the two pieces of paper), as it helps when you’re quickly flicking your eye back and forth to check the accuracy of your drawing against the original. The paper I’m using is Strathmore 64 lb. laid charcoal paper.

Now that I’ve got my paper on the board, I use a ruler to draw a straight line horizontally across from the original to match the reference line that Bargue used on his drawings. I then draw the perpendicular with a ruler, using my plumb line to make sure it is absolutely straight. Now we’ve got the framework to make measurements against and we’re ready to begin!

Step 2 – Placement of Key Points

To begin placement of the drawing, we need to identify the points where the lines of the drawing cross the reference lines and mark them accordingly. To determine their position, I make measurements with my fingers and plumb line using the sight-size method.

To use sight-size, you must stand back from the drawing board a few paces – enough that you can see both the drawing and your paper in plain view without having to turn your head. There are some semi-scientific rules about how far to stand back from your subject – like three times the length of the largest proportion of your drawing – but you’ll find that you can get a little closer with the Bargue plates since they are two-dimensional and don’t suffer quite as much distortion of view as a three-dimensional object would when one is standing too close to the setup. Distortion is the main reason for following the 3x guideline. I usually stand back about two long paces. It is imperative that you always view the drawing from the same spot, centered in between your subject and your paper – it’s a good idea to mark the spot with tape so you always make sure you’re in the same viewing position. Always keep the easel in the same spot until the drawing is complete, and even consider wearing the same shoes each time you work on it. For three-dimensional subjects, make sure that your light-source can remain constant for the duration of the drawing. One more thing – never look at your subject while you’re standing at the drawing board making a mark. Always observe from your viewing position, then step forward to make your marks – even with the Bargue plates. I have been very surprised at how my eyes can deceive me, especially when standing up close. I find that the length of my marks are nearly always underestimated when I’ve tried to cheat this way…

step 2 - marking key spots along the construction lines

To use the plumb line to make measurements, stand in your viewing position while holding your arms straight out in front of you with the thread stretched taut between your left hand and right hand. Close one eye and hold the thread parallel with the horizontal construction line on the original Bargue drawing. Using your thumbs as your measuring tool, measure the distance from the very center of the construction lines (where the horizontal and vertical lines cross) to the furthest point on the right of the drawing where one of the drawn lines crosses the construction line. In this case, it’s the point marked with the orange circle.

When you’ve got the distance measured in the thread between your thumbs, rotate your body slightly to the right (while keeping your arms straight out in front of you and the same eye closed) and find the same measurement on your drawing – measuring from the center of the construction lines you’ve replicated on the paper. After you’ve found the measurement with your fingers, drop your arms while keeping your open eye focused on the spot you just measured. Step forward and mark the spot with your sharpened charcoal. Step back to your viewing position and check your accuracy by first re-measuring from the original drawing and checking it against your placed mark. If the measurements don’t line up, use your chamois or kneaded eraser to get rid of the mark, then try again. This will take some getting used to – especially on your first drawing. I found that my arms would ache and it was sometimes hard to hold them still enough to get an accurate measurement. Give it time – you will get more comfortable with it and your arms will eventually get used to the movement, giving you much more stability. Trust me. Newbie tip: keep your charcoal tucked into the crook of your thumb while you’re measuring. It does no good to measure your distances and then have to look down to pick up your charcoal. I know that sounds stupid, but I’m embarassed to say how many times I had to stop and re-measure because I didn’t have my charcoal in my hand when I was ready to place the mark!

When marking these key points it’s best to start with the outer-most points around your drawing. If you read ahead in the Bargue course, you’ll see the more complex drawings using this simple method to define the boundaries of the object to be drawn.

Step 3 – Identify Other Points Along the Construction Lines

all construction line intersections have been identified

Once you’ve got the outer points defined, and you’ve rigorously checked your measurements to be sure they’re accurate, begin to work on the other points where the drawing lines intersect the construction lines. The best way to find these additional points is to use multiple measurements. For example, you can measure from the center point of the construction lines and from the other points you’ve already marked on the paper. Keep going back and forth from the original to your paper to be sure that your new marks are in the right spot. You’ll soon discover many different ways to ensure the correct placement of any given point.

Step 4 – Draw Your First Lines

draw in the lines most easily found first

Upon identifying a number of points that lie across the construction lines, it’s relatively simple to find the lines of the drawing that can be placed by simply connecting the “dots” that you’ve already made. The angle of lines that continue past your points is more easily determined this way. After every line is drawn, step back to your viewing position and check your measurements, to be sure that you’ve not gone too far with any of them. You can also begin to check the angles of your lines. This can be done with the plumb line, but I find it easier to use a wooden cooking skewer (with the sharp end removed, of course) because it remains rigid and is less prone to innaccuracy due to your arms wobbling around – since, if you’re new to sight-size, they’ve turned to jelly by this point anyway…

Step 5 – Using Triangulation to Find Difficult Points

This is a very important step and is well-illustrated by plate 1.7. One of the key points of this drawing is in the upper left corner where the eyelid meets the brow. All of the other lines work their way upward in the direction of this point, so identifying it will go a long way to helping you finish your copy. But how do we find a point that is out in open space, far from any reference line? The answer: triangulation!

using triangulation to find distant points

Triangulation is finding a point in space by measuring from at least two other reference points. In the case of this important intersection, I need to measure the distances from both the horizontal and vertical construction lines to the place where my point lies (indicated by the orange arrows in the photo). To find the point I need to make an educated guess to start with. Sometimes, if you’re unsure of where a point lies, it’s best to just take a stab at it and get a mark down on the paper in the general vicinity of where you know it should be. Once you’ve got a mark to measure by, you’ve got something to work with to determine whether you need to go farther horizontally, closer vertically, etc. Just keep measuring and re-measuring until you’re sure you’ve got it in the right place. After I had this line drawn, I was able to place all of the subsequent points in relation to it.

Step 6 – Forge Ahead!

keep using the steps to work toward a complete copy

Now that you understand how to find key points using both the construction lines and triangulation, you can start thinking about your line quality. Great – one more thing to think about, right!? In order to achieve a somewhat accurate copy, you’re going to have to pay special attention to this important aspect of the Bargue drawings. If you can accurately reproduce these lines, you’re well on your way to becoming a master! I’ve found that my line thickness and curvature are what will make or break the drawing. As you’ll notice from the photo, I’m having quite a bit of trouble with the brow-line. Every time I would look at it in reverse with a mirror, I could tell it was somehow off, but it took me quite a bit of time to finally correct the problem (which helped contribute to that “smudgy mess” I described earlier…). My best advice is to take a break once you reach this point. Let your eyes rest for a bit before you come back to tackle any problem spots. Using a mirror helps, too, as it gives you a new perspective and can immediately point out errors that your eyes have gotten too tired to see. Just keep plugging away and you’ll soon have it. And, for Pete’s sake, don’t give up until it’s right!

Wrapping It Up

the finished drawing

When you’re satisfied with the drawing, have checked and re-checked your measurements (yes, I’m going to keep saying that!), and have tried your hardest to assure that your line quality matches that of the original, it’s time for the ultimate test – the dreaded tracing-paper overlay! Simply trace the original drawing and lay this over top of your copy to see how you did. This will point out all of your errors (ugh…). To put it more positively, it will also point out all of your successes – because if you think it looks very close to the original, you’re bound to have many of them. It’s important to keep this in mind. Sometimes people get so caught up in everything they did wrong that they fail to recognize how much more they did right! As long as you find yourself improving with each drawing there’s no need to fret.

This course is designed to train your eye, and I’ve found, after doing only seven of the plates, that I have already seen a lot of improvement. In my post “Painting Break”, from July 14, I was impressed at how my oil painting benefitted from my work on the Bargue course. I not only had more sensitivity to see when something was incorrect, but I had much more patience than I had ever been able to exercise in any other painting – checking my brushstrokes over and over again to make sure the portrait was as accurate as possible. The result was the best grisaille portrait I’ve ever done. I really managed to capture the likeness of my wife in the painting and was extremely delighted and encouraged by it. To me, that was the best reward I could have received from slowly working through this course – especially since I am my own toughest critic… I have big hopes and dreams for the future of my work that seem more within my grasp now. I encourage all of you to do what you know is best to achieve your goals. Work hard, develop a plan, be persistent… With all of these things combined (especially persistence), it will be impossible to fail!

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bargue 1.5

After a well-deserved break from the arduous process of getting used to the sight-size method (and a very busy week), I’m back at it. Plate 1.5 went fairly well, especially considering it’s been over two weeks since I did my last Bargue drawing. This one was completed in about 1.5 – 2 hours. While being conscious of the fact that I should take breaks frequently to give my eyes a rest, I have to admit that I refrained from doing so because of constraints on my schedule this week. Regardless of my lack of discipline, the only problem that I saw when I laid a tracing of the original over my drawing was that it was ever-so-slightly wider than the original. The placement of the different parts, however, in relation to the whole was very close. I did make a point to check the drawing many times in reverse by looking in a hand-held mirror – and old art-school trick that has always been helpful!

Plate 1.6

Finally – a drawing that ended up somewhere between close and really close!  Tonight I learned some interesting lessons as I worked on plate 1.6. I have to begin, however, by saying that I’m extremely pleased at how well it turned out. When I laid a tracing of the original over my drawing, I found that all of the elements were in the right place – the only imperfections being a line or two slightly off. It’s much easier dealing with this drudgery on a regular basis when you start to see some improvement!

bargue 1.6 - the most successful drawing so far

One lesson learned was the importance of line-weight. I’ve thought about this while working on the other plates, but with this drawing it seemed like it made all the difference. Tonight I would have been lost without my trusty kneaded eraser to shape and re-shape the clumsy charcoal lines that I was laying down. The more plates I do, the more I respect the skill of the hands that created the original drawings. The lines appear to have been laid down so effortlessly and in exactly the right place the very first time. This is why I’m doing the Bargue Drawing Course – to develop the confident hand of a master draftsman… And while it is tempting to use pencil to do the drawings, I have to stand by my belief that using the vine charcoal as intended will bring about a better results. Why, you ask? Call me a masochist, but I think using the vine charcoal forces you to think more before you place your lines. It lays down a thicker, darker line than a pencil and requires more control. Overall, I believe that doing the course this way not only trains your eye and mind, but also develops a steadier and more sensitive hand. Right now I have to resort to using the eraser to fix my mistakes, but I’m hoping that, over time, correct line thickness will become second-nature to me.

The other major lesson that I learned was to not always trust my eye. That seems slightly backwards considering that I’m trying to develop my artistic “eye” better. The reason I say this is that throughout the drawing, I kept getting the impression that it was much too wide, or tall, or crooked, or whatever… Something seemed off, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. This led me to repeatedly re-measure my line placement with the plumb line, check my angles with a wooden skewer (a very useful little tool), and look at the drawing in a mirror. Even after all of this checking and double-checking I was still not convinced that the tracing overlay was going to be anywhere near close. Also, this drawing took me 1.5 hours – fast for a Bargue drawing – which didn’t make me feel any better about it. I even forced myself to sit down for a while with my eyes closed (to give them a rest). Alas, in the end all of my measuring paid off, and I ended up with the most successful drawing yet!

Well, I’m halfway done the first plate now. I’ve put so much work into these drawings that it feels like I should be further ahead. But, as the saying goes, slow and steady wins the race…

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Rather Simple, Isn’t It?

Yes, I know this sounds like a simple, basic thing, but for those of us who don’t have someone at hand to show us how it’s done, understanding how to sharpen vine or willow charcoal can be quite confusing. When I first began considering the Bargue Drawing Course, I was surprised at how difficult it was to track down this information. In the end, I don’t remember exactly where I got hold of the proper info, but it took me a long time. That said, I’m hoping this post will be of use to some poor, struggling artist somewhere.

Use the Right Materials

Vine Charcoal Drawing Supplies - clockwise from left: vine charcoal in various densities, chamois, film canister for storing charcoal dust, kneaded eraser, sharpening block, vine charcoal stick

For the most optimal conditions with which to do a drawing in vine charcoal, it’s important to have a few key supplies. First and foremost, you’ll obviously need some vine charcoal, which can be found at any art supply or craft store. It comes in a range of densities, from hard to very soft, and is relatively inexpensive. It’s best to purchase the range of densities and experiment a bit with it until you find the strengths and weaknesses of each one. The softer the charcoal, for example, the easier it is to erase. If you’re like me and make lots of mistakes you may want to try this out first. The only downside to the softer vine sticks is that they dull rapidly and require a lot of sharpening, which can be annoying when you’re in the middle of a drawing and prefer to keep moving.

For erasing, or lifting charcoal off the paper, a combination of a kneaded eraser and a piece of chamois leather works very well. You can find a chamois in the automotive section of most grocery and/or department stores (they are commonly used for washing vehicles). You can cut pieces off it as you have need – a piece approximately 6″ square will be sufficient.

For the actual sharpening of the charcoal sticks, you will need a sandpaper sharpening block which, again, can be found at most art supply or craft stores. Essentially, it’s a small wooden block with strips of sandpaper stapled to it. As each sheet of sandpaper gets saturated with charcoal dust, you can just tear it off and throw it away. You won’t need to do this too often, though, with vine charcoal, as it tends to fall off the sandpaper rather than saturate it. This leads me to another key supply – an empty film canister (or similar container) to store charcoal dust in. Why save the dust? It can be very useful for doing subtractive drawings, which involve laying down a rubbing of charcoal dust on paper, erasing out highlights, and darkening shadows. The best way I’ve found to collect the dust is to sharpen your charcoal sticks over a piece of vellum or tracing paper (you’ll need a very smooth surface). When you’re done with your drawing session, just roll up the paper a bit and funnel it into your container for later use. By the way, the going rate for a container of powdered charcoal is about $9.00, so you’ll be saving a good deal of money if you follow this method. Smart…

The Process

place the charcoal on the block at a 45-degree angle

roll the charcoal while rubbing across the block

Ok – you’ve got your supplies and a healthy dose of enthusiasm. Now you’re ready to start drawing! To sharpen a stick of vine charcoal, you’ll want to hold your sandpaper sharpening block in your weak hand and the charcoal in your dominant hand. Place one of the ends of the charcoal stick on your sharpening block at a 45-degree (or greater) angle. Push the charcoal away from you along the sandpaper, rolling it slightly between your index finger and thumb to ensure a nice round, even point. The point should be a long taper and not a short stubby one. That’s about it – easy!

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