Alluring

Alluring

I have to admit that while I have dabbled in it, I haven't been such a huge fan of charcoal.  Know a lot of the lessons I have combine paints and charcoal, and I have approached cautiously.  I just don't like the dirty look, or the mud that you can easily get.  Heck, I don't have any problem doing that with my paints.

This week we had Robert Kelley as our instructor.  This guy is a master manipulator of charcoal.  He is a master.  It was wonderful to watch his several hours worth of video and listen to his thought process.

Of course I always seem to have to deviate.  I thought I was going to try to do the straight lessons this year.  But Again I have finally decided to maybe use the same reference, or not, but let "my style" try to shine through.  I am not real sure what it is, but I am trying to give it free rein.  So I decided to use charcoal, but also add some color.  We have had nothing but days and days of rain and gray skies.  Where is the color???

I did however combine the pastel with charcoal and used the various tools he was demoing on both types of media.  Only thing I really did wrong was to use Artagain, it was just too smooth to really  get enough layers to get good deep contrast.  

Oh yeah, major breakthrough ...... I actually broke my charcoal stick to make a smaller piece.  I usually don't do that with pastels either - eventually they get smaller.   But yep, that's me!!!! throwing caution to the wind and being a rebel.  

Oh also trying a new look on the blogger - always like your feedback.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek.