Pastel & Charcoal Heaven

I ordered a couple of more pan pastels when I placed my order for the Derwent XL Charcoal sticks.  I have two tints and maybe a half dozen shades to extra dark shades I want and my palette will be completed.

Two at Once Sketch

A five minute sketch of John's father with a charcoal pencil taped to a sepia conte pencil.

Bumble Bee

Black mark it all pencil and charcoal smudge bag on newsprint.

Black conte, oiled black charcoal, and charcoal smudge bag on sketch paper.  The stippling is due to my sketching this on my drawing table which has a rough surface.

white mark it all pencil, white conte, and white charcoal, on black sketch paper.

Drawing

I finally have my easel adjusted to a height that is comfortable for drawing, and this was no small feat because every adjustment required me to sketch to see if the height was correct or not.

I'm also using my drawing table for what I intended it to be used for, drawing.

Experimenting with a variety of charcoals and pastels.

I have a new affliction, it's called charcoal!

Portrait Time

Getting ready to create some 30 second and one minute portrait drawings for a class I'm taking.  I spent the better part of today scanning in images of dead relatives, mostly because the images were in black and white, for this assignment.

Inspiration

Turkey's Tail Fungus growing on an old pear stump in my back yard. It yields a gorgeous natural dye color onto wool and silk fabrics.