September 10, 2012

New Charcoal Step by Step

It's been refreshing to use my rare free time to get back to charcoal drawing during the last couple of months. This drawing is compressed charcoal on rives paper and is roughly life size. It was completed in about an hour and a half.











Close-up.

11 comments:

Katherine Thomas said...

Thanks for showing the step by step for this awesome portrait. I'm going to a live portrait session this afternoon. You make it look easy, but it takes lots of practice to achieve what you did here!

8:11 AM
Studio at the Farm said...

Brilliant, Nathan! And I so much appreciate your posting the steps in the portrait - thank you.

1:49 PM
Anonymous said...

There is an obvious issue with the alignment of the eyes I am afraid ... the grouping of values is great though.

5:44 PM
Danielle Case said...

I love seeing the process!

6:52 PM
Gavin said...

The symmetry of the eyes is quite noticeable off, but that's not to say the gentleman in the drawing is symmetrical!
It doesn't show as much in the final rendering, and as with all your charcoal work, this is absolutely awesome. Always inspirational to visit your blog. I can see that every stroke of charcoal is carefully conceived like John Sargent with his brushstrokes. That level of 'simplicity' is a skill.

11:04 PM
Sergio DS said...

Fantástico, me apasiona ver tu trabajo paso a paso.
Admiro tu obra.

2:09 AM
Arti said...

Thanks for sharing the process, Nathan.Your work is always amazing...What would be a good paper for charcoal?Should it be different than what I use for graphite pencil?

3:16 AM
Khoebe Magsaysay said...

Thanks for always showing the step by step process. Simplicity is always the hardest to achieve >,<

6:47 AM
Nathan Fowkes said...

Thanks guys.

And yes the model has noticeably asymmetry in his face. The actual drawing problem however, was the shadow cast from the right eye onto the nose, it flattened the form too much and left the eye floating without a proper relationship to the nose, I couldn't resist a touch up so it's a little better now.

4:45 PM
GhettoFab said...

simply stunning! Thanks for showing process. You sir, rock

12:20 PM
Gothic Fantasy Art said...

I really impressed with the work here.

12:19 AM

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