# Just sharing some of my charcoal drawings.



## equusketch (Sep 8, 2010)

I just wanted to share some of my charcoal drawings. I am still fairly new to charcoal pencils, but and stedily falling in love with them. I love how bold the drawings look. I have some difficulty with fine detail work, but love the high contrasts I can achieve vs. with graphite. 

Any advice/critiques are very much appreciated as I would love to eventually take charcoal commissions very soon.


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## TLA (Sep 17, 2010)

Those are very nicely done!

I don't have any advice on techniques with charcoal as I don't personally care for it. I love seeing what you guys can produce with it though!


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## PencilMeIn (Sep 2, 2010)

> I have some difficulty with fine detail work, but love the high contrasts


Same here. Yours are lovely, though, and I don't think you'll have any trouble getting commissions.


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## Brandi (Sep 13, 2010)

It's amazing how much you've progressed in the short time you've been using charcoal. They all look awesome Liz!


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## Terminator9217 (Sep 23, 2010)

Wow those are nice looking horses, I am just starting out with charcoal myself, sorry hopr you don't mind if I butt in ha. I have done two animal charcoal and I am also working on portraits hopefully I can post one of them for you guys to critique for me caouse I really do need to know what other people think of my art work


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## Terminator9217 (Sep 23, 2010)

I am gonna use my desktop to try to load my charcoal sketches in so that I can post one of them for you guys to give me an opinion of it don't be shy with your opinions if it is not good I want to know I will also try to post one of my oil painting for an opinion, so give me a little time to download it to my desktop and thank you in advance for your opinions.


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## Wildest Heart (Sep 4, 2010)

I really like the 1st & 3rd ones! That second horse is so fat! He he love it! reminds me of my friend's Fjord gelding (he had rolls _infront_ of the cinch!)


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## kcortese (Oct 21, 2010)

Very good job! 

I find it very refreshing to see an artist who can draw a horse correctly. 

Do you have an kneaded eracer? It looks like clay and can be molded into a fine point. I always have one handy when working on sketchs and pastels. 

Use a blending stump and your finger. Always start out lightly, then go darker, blend by rubbing the charcoal outward into the light. Use the kneaded eracer to lift the charcoal from the paper or just erace. I have charcoal pencils and sticks of different hardness. The sticks are good for larger areas. Get very soft charcoal for the darkest areas. 

I use several different kinds of eracers, pencil, rubber (big soft yellow one for cleaning up ), and kneaded. I even us a drafting eracer which can be sharpened into a tip with my pencil sharpener. 

Be carefull not to damage the tooth of the paper by eracing too much. 

You can achieve very fine details with charcoal, just take your time with it.

I also give it a final spray with fixative to protect it. 

Spray fixative really smells bad, my husband only complains about odor when I use that. The dog even sneezes and leaves the room. I really smell my house up, wood burning, paint, paint thinner, polyureathane, spray paint so on and so forth.

Just have fun.

Karen


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## karaann07 (Nov 7, 2010)

Wow, those are incredible. I love the deep contrasts! I have never done anything with charcoal, and probably never will, because I'm pretty sure that no matter what I try, I will just end up with a black, smudgy paper. LOL I love the lab. I wanna take him home to snuggle by the fire!


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## kcortese (Oct 21, 2010)

I'm sure you would do OK and not smudge.


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## DLeeG (Oct 20, 2010)

You have my deepest admiration. The control that you have drawing with charcoal is amazing. My artistic 10 year old horse loving daughter also loves your work.


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## karaann07 (Nov 7, 2010)

DLeeG said:


> The control that you have drawing with charcoal is amazing..


 That's what I'm saying! I can't even manage to sign a business letter without getting ink on my hand. There is no way I could handle charcoal without making a big, smudgy mess, let alone actually create something out of it! Nope, that is asking WAY too much, and I'm big enough to admit that is something I will simply never be good at! So I will continue to admire from afar!


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