This series of lessons will walk you through the complete process for drawing a portrait in charcoal and white chalk on toned paper.
The first session will focus on getting an accurate block-in of the basic shadow shapes and darker tones that make up the drawing.
Materials:
- Toned paper
- Charcoal
- White Chalk Pencil
- Kneadable Eraser
- Sanding Block
- Sharpener
- Drawing Board
- Easel
- Begin with the biggest proportions; height of the head, width of the head, body etc.
- Sketch these in very lightly with soft lines that will be easy to erase.
- Keep correcting things until everything is setting in the right place.
- It is important that you don’t rush the early stages.
- Once the major proportions are in place you can start to find dark shapes (shadows).
- Sketch these in lightly using straight lines.
- Don’t add too many curves or details yet – as these tend to be less accurate.
- Finally, once all the outlines of the shadows are sketched in, you can fill them with a single tone.
- Keep working lightly at this stage as you may see some bits you need to correct once you’ve added the tone.
- You online need two tones at this stage – the tone of paper and the shadow colour – that is all!
