Portrait Drawing in Charcoal and Pastel White
This exercise by Caroline is on tonal values. She started with a light grey drawing of the face. The charcoal was then used to draw the darker shadow on one side of the face. Charcoal is easy to wipe out, erase or smudge if a mistake is made. To help with the drawing measurements, she draws points, on the drawing on the width of the nose and mouth and eyes. The width of the nose is often the same as the width of the eyes. With the eyes check out the area of white in the actual eye. The ear starts above the level of the eyebrow. Measure all of the distances according to the facial distances.
She starts with charcoal and blends. She can use the white but not for blending at this time. She then repeats the charcoal to darken over the shadows.
Once they are drawn in the white pastel can be added but not blended as it simply turns grey with the charcoal. It is OK to blend it at the end if need be. At the end of the shaping of the eyes, they can be redrawn with the white pastel and the iris can be corrected. You were constantly adjusting.
The charcoal that she used was by Coats, but she was not happy with it as it was quite scratchy. She suggested that the Windsor Newton charcoal are very good, as our a number of other charcoals. Enjoy practicing with these mediums and portraits.
