Nitram Charcoal Portrait

Your doing a grand job, David. A fabulous expression, and a lovely splash of light.

Any new medium takes practice, as of course you're well aware - a bit more work on the shoulder would help in this case, plus a bit of refinement here and there, but the basis is very good and you know you could make it better: you have a feel for the medium, for expression, volume and shape, just as you've shown you have for watercolour. Have you ever tried conté crayon? I can't remember, so apologies if you've said so before - thing is, they're available in a range of hardness, extremely pleasant to use (which reminds me, I need to get on and employ them again), and also, still very inexpensive. I do realize though that you can't try everything at once: but I'm sure you'd get on with them.

I remember I had conte crayons and some pastels when I was at school and I gave the contes away having not really tried them. So much to try and so little time to do it.

Good work, David. This toned paper seems to work well for you. A good strong drawing of a fair haired girl in charcoal, not easy...she'd have to be dark haired for me to attempt. (I like charcoal but not the mess I make).

I love toned paper for drawing on, grey tones mainly, because you really can highlight the subject with white chalk or whatever. I also love working with charcoal, just the standard sticks for me, messy and expressive and need to be used on larger sheets. I like this one DB, not so refined perhaps, but a bit more like a drawing, less photographic! However, the face is good but the hair is all a bit angular in places, I would like to see flowing lines. Good job anyway!

Nice work David!