Look Closer, Draw Better

CHARCOAL

There is a certain mysterious quality to charcoal that can’t be captured with any other medium. I choose it when my subject calls for dramatic contrast between dark and light and quiet subtle transitions between the two qualities. There is something quite poetic about using burnt twigs to create renderings of objects from the natural world, and to me, the best way to create this atmosphere is by using charcoal in a reductive manner.

Turnips, charcoal

Charcoal Drawing

Reductive charcoal drawings begin with a dark background of powdered charcoal smoothed onto the paper and then immediately using a kneaded eraser to reveal the areas ...