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CFWhitman — Gabrielle
Published: 2008-08-26 16:35:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 4556; Favourites: 70; Downloads: 58
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Description
Gabrielle UnionI came across a photo while looking for a reference to draw that made me decide to pick up some charcoal pencils after not using them for a long time. I tend to not like working exclusively in charcoal, though, so this includes a lot of graphite as well.
Charcoal
2b, 4b, 6b
Graphite
hb mechanical
kneaded rubber eraser
Mead Académie Sketch Pad paper, medium weight (cheap paper like this is hit or miss; this seems OK)
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Comments: 43
I love this portrait of Gabby. I just recently uploaded two of my own into my gallery.
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A late than you for the 
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this is simply beautiful, the shading is perfect! amazing piece!
-Jackie
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A late thank you for the comment and the
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ooh okies! you are very welcomed!
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Wow, this is beautiful. I've been thinking of combining charcoal and graphite myself because charcoal alone really annoys me.
Did you use graphite for the lighter values and then charcoal for the darker ones...or can the two be layered?
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Thank you very much for the comment and the
I switched back and forth as i was drawing, so most of what is charcoal was charcoal to begin with and the same with the graphite parts.
However, I did put down charcoal over graphite in places. Also, I have in the past done a whole drawing in graphite and then darkened in parts with charcoal, but if you lay graphite too thickly it does tend to impede the lay down of charcoal a little. You can get around this limitation by erasing the graphite a bit or spraying over it with a good fixative.
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Thank you very much again for the comment and the
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Fantastic work! I used charcoal, but it's definitely on the list. I must admit, I am a bit afraid of drawing with it - it seems hard to handle *hmm*
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Thank you very much. If you use a kneaded rubber eraser (also called a putty eraser), then charcoal is reasonably forgiving, so you shouldn't be too intimidated. Even harder charcoal tends to be rather soft, though, so keeping it sharp for fine detail can be a challenge, and it tends to lay down very dark, so lighter areas can be difficult. I generally circumvent the issue with lighter areas by combining it with graphite like I did here.
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Thanks for your comment, it was very helpful! I shall make sure I try charcoal one day. 
I heard some artists use the following method: if they draw a face, then at first they draw "a face silhouette", keep it all dark, then make some parts even darker (like around eyes, shading on cheeks etc).. Then using a putty eraser they start bringing highlights out, lighten some areas etc. Later, they work on details.
Do you draw in this way?
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Well, I've gone about it two different ways.
Sometimes I draw basically the whole image in graphite with an HB pencil, without making any part particularly dark. Then I go on to fill in dark areas with charcoal. By the time I'm done blending, I always have to hit the highlights with a putty eraser (they call them kneaded rubber on this side of the pond
With this drawing I basically started doing the dark areas of the face and hair with charcoal (I may have done some light graphite outlining first; I'm not sure). Then I did some blending with tissue and highlighting with a putty eraser, at the same time filling in some of the lighter areas around the face with graphite and finishing off some detail (especially the lighter detail). Then I moved on to do the rest of the drawing in graphite (technically, I did some of the rest before I finished with the face and hair, but it was with graphite), including the detail, and afterward hit the dark areas of the rest of the drawing with charcoal. I still had to go around to the highlights with my putty eraser at the end to clean them up.
As I mentioned, this wasn't all strictly in order; I tend to move around a drawing as I'm working on it. At least part of the reason for this is to keep myself from burning out on the details before I finish the drawing
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Great! Thank you so much once again for your detailed piece of advice. It was really helpful!
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Thank you, and thanks for the
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Your picture is featured at our club journal
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Thank you very much.
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Thanks. This one seems to be my best liked work on this forum so far for some reason.
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Thanks very much for the comments.
@Lady2: I've actually made a few very small refinements to the background since I scanned this drawing, but I didn't bother to rescan because, I thought, "It's only the background." Perhaps it's more important than I thought.
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perfect. and I admire background cus I have problems with it^^
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Stunning!
Can understand why that photo gave you inspiration.
It's very well excecuted from your side, also.
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