Baker St Park, with flying dog!

Posted on February 25, 2023February 25, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Baker Street Park, Charcoal, Drawing, Fine Art, Landscape, Penkhull, Sketching, Stoke-on trent, winter view2 Comments

A cloudy sky (with an odd dog shape- I’m not changing it) flys above a park. The grass is shaded by the long shadows of trees. The sun is bright, but starting to set. I used various techniques taught to us by Jo Watson, an artist who comes out and teaches charcoal workshops.

Most of the group used images supplied by Jo, but a few of us chose our own images. This drawing was based on a photo of Baker Street Park in Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent.

I really loved learning about charcoal, I’ve used it before, but not been in control of it! ❤️

Flying dog?

Posted on February 25, 2023February 25, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Charcoal, Dog, Drawing, flying dog, flying hare, Fun, Hare, Life, Orme Art group, Sketching2 Comments

As I was finishing my charcoal drawing I saw a creature in the sky. A flying beagle type dog with a white muzzle floppy mouth and long floppy ears (alternatively it could be a loping hare). I don’t know how I managed it, but I didn’t alter it, I just chuckled! I’ll post a photo of the finished drawing later…

Charcoal WIP

Posted on February 25, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Black and white drawing, Charcoal, Drawing, Life, Sketching, Work in progressLeave a comment

I went to the Orme Art Group charcoal workshop today. It was run by an artist called Jo Watson and she taught us various techniques. Here I used brushed on charcoal powder smudged with a rubber tipped tool. Then I used willow charcoal sticks which you put on in a random way, then smudge again to lighten the charcoal. Finally you add darker layers to add contrast but you can tone these back to the paper colour, either by using a putty rubber you can shape, to lift off a layer of charcoal, or you can use a mechanical eraser thar rubs off patches to make the drawing lighter.

Wide eyed

Posted on December 18, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Black and white, Black ink, Charcoal, Drawing, Face, Felt pens, Imagined, Life, Picture, SketchingLeave a comment

I was trying to draw a face that had a child like quality as an example for the children’s book project I’m doing for college. I used black ink fine liner pen to draw and shade it and add some freckles. I was worriedcthe shading was a bit to strong so I decided to use a charcoal pencil to add a bit of softness. Then I coloured the eyes and the lips (I’m planning to use black and white drawings with small coloured highlights). Each drawing is different but it’s helping me decide what I’m doing.

Upright

Posted on April 27, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #100daywalkingchallenge, #bandofsketchers, Art, Black ink, Bottle oven, Charcoal, Drawing, From a photo, Metallic pen, Metallic pencils, Photo, seen on a walk, Sketch3 Comments

Upright bottle oven somewhere near the canal in Burslem, from a photo I took on a walk with the closer to home group on Saturday. I didn’t have time to stop and read the sign about it as I was at the back of the group. Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt. Metallic silver pen, metallic colours, dried up black felt pens, black felt pen, charcoal stick.

Close-up

Posted on April 14, 2020April 14, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Apple, Art, Cartridge paper, Charcoal, Colours, Crayon, Design, Drawing, Illustration, Ink pen, Permanent markers, Sketch, Sketch book, Urban sketchers Stoke on trent2 Comments

I just thought I would show you a close-up of the apple I drew today, so you can see the effect of layering up pencil crayon and permanent marker, black ink pen, and charcoal pencil. I enjoyed using fine lines to define the shadows. I was going to leave a patch if white paper as a highlight on the apple, but when I looked at it, it was to white. So I used orange, red and pink permanent markers to try and make the apple stand out. Using different colours and textures is really exciting, it makes the image less flat. But I’m not trying to make it 3d either.

The little Goldmine

Posted on October 16, 2019October 16, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Arthur Berry, Artist, Burslem, Charcoal, Fun, Humour, Life, Painter, Pastels, Stoke-on trent, writerLeave a comment

Saw this in Burslem today. On the main road from Cobridge up to Burslem.

Arthur Berry was an artist based in Stoke-on-Trent where he produced pictures of everyday figures and landscapes with a style of his own. Charcoal and pastels are used to chisel faces out of blackness, strokes of grey and white float on top of murky reds to bring out the dark shapes of buildings.

Arthur was also a writer and poet. We attended several of his plays when they were performed at the Victoria Theatre in Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent in the 1980’s. We have a copy of a couple of his books. He was a very creative artist.

Portrait session

Posted on June 14, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Charcoal, Drawing, Life drawing, Life studies, Pen and ink, Pencil sketches, Portrait, Potteries, Sketching, Stoke-on trent2 Comments

We had a lovely sitter tonight called Debbie McAndrew. She is an author and play write and also sometimes acts. She wrote a brilliant play called “dirty laundry” that was on last year . It was set in the past and was about the history of the potteries.

We had an entertaining session drawing her and discussing all sorts of things, including how she got into the theatre and acting and how the group got into drawing and painting.

I really enjoyed the session and think that I got some relatively accurate portraits from it.

I used pencil, charcoal pencil and black ink to do the drawings. The sketches are in a small sketch book with good thickness cartridge paper.

I like drawing in these books. There is enough room to fit the drawings in, and they are small enough to hold so that it is not a struggle to hold the book. Other people were using A1 or A2 sheets to draw or paint on but I prefer the smaller size. About A5.

Anyway I shall just leave you to decide if you like them…

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Charcoal