Work3 - b

I tried a different paper for charcoal work. It's official, IT SUCKS. I couldn't get any kind of good tonal range, regardless of the different pencils and techniques I used. Granted I can say this is because I still am no expert, and yes, I understand I'm 'beating myself up over something stupid', but I'm annoyed.

I think it's pretty decent looking in person, but as soon as I scanned it, the grainy look to the shading became blindingly apparent. So, here's what I'll do. I'll submit this now, because I don't feel like I can make it look any better on paper for scanning. Once I find my stupid tablet pen (yes, I've lost it again) I'll work on this some more and do everything I can possibly dream to it, on the oh-so-fantastic digital canvas that allows so much more freedom. Or something.

Anyways, enough rambling. I used a few different charcoals in an attempt to get the tone range down, but it still lacked in smoothness. Tortillion in some spots, mechanical clicky pencil, qtip for some of that smoother tone that covers his cheeks and some of his head, and a clicky eraser to get some of those lines in there.

Three nights of work (well, mornings, technically), about four hours per night (broken between going on walkthroughs and running various errands). So, total, about twelve hours of effort put into something that I feel needs more work. I'm still satisfied with the time well spent, though... It was a learning experience.

I posted the in-progress image a while back, here it is: Work3 - a. Reference pulled from Maxim; check the in-prog to get more info about that.


Oh well, comments always appreciated. I've vowed (just now) that this type of paper will only be used with strictly mechanical pencil work. I used this type of paper to draw (with mechanical pencil, too) Audrey Hepburn, Sean Connery, and a few pieces like 'They say, the eyes'... along with some of the sketchwork for my more-favorite digital pieces, like Misery Loves Company and In Chains. It just seems that this sketchbook just doesn't like charcoal. (edit, I thought I would point out that other works listed just now, I modified the tonal range some in the darker pieces, but I didn't even want to try tweaking the light/dark balance with this one...)

I'll try another paper next time. I've already got some ideas from co-workers, but they're going to be doozies.


Happy Halloween, everyone.