Self Portrait

[Paul Foxton]

Thank you, Sharon.

To be honest, I have enough on my plate right now trying to learn the basics. There isn't room in my head for meaning or anything else, so I think I got that one by default rather than by design

The paper is just ordinary pastel paper. I've just checked, it's from a Daler-Rowney pad of 160 gsm acid free paper with a grain. Actually, that's pretty funny, normally I avoid Daler-Rowney stuff like the plague, this one slipped through, apparently. I used Coates willow charcoal sticks for that one, but I've just got some W&N charcoal and it seems a lot better, softer and it doesn't have that annoying habit of skipping across the paper without making a mark like Coates does. I don't know if you get the Coates stuff over there, but it's sort of bog standard, found in every high street art shop over here. I've tried charcoal pencils, but I don't get on with them. I find them very unforgiving and too definite, not easy to lift the marks with a rubber when they're wrong, and I can't push it about on the paper so much.

It might be worth mentioning that I stomp a lot, and that I've taken to using a mahl stick pretty much all the time for charcoal drawings.

The small facility I have with charcoal now I owe entirely to copying Bargue plates, I'm pretty sure, I didn't even think of sharpening the sticks before I started those. I used to be of the belief that charcoal was a "big, expressive" medium. Then I saw some cast drawings...

I do believe you're right about the shadow side. I've just been sitting here blocking out a bit of the left side with my hand after reading your post, and the likeness is considerably improved. Bingo. I like the idea of the clear ruler, I'll give it a go. Beats a wonky stick of charcoal, I'm sure.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Sharon Knettell]

Actually Paul, I should have been clearer; all too often artists weigh down their art with pretentious meaning before they have achieved mastery, hoping to disguise their shortcomings with cleverness. You did not.

[Mischa Milosevic]

Sharon it seems your link is not working? I do agree, Sharon, on the pretentious. Its sad that many do not crave and strive for the delicacies of mastery.

Paul, I can honestly say thus, if you continue and not stop, you are going places.

[Sharon Knettell]

Mischa,

You have to go the main Forum site.

[Paul Foxton]

Originally Posted by Sharon

all too often artists weigh down their art with pretentious meaning before they have achieved mastery, hoping to disguise their shortcomings with cleverness.

Ah, now THAT I agree with. I think the rarest commodity in the art world today, in general, is honesty.

Mischa, you can find Sharon's work here: http://www.portraitartist.com/knettell/knettell.htm

Originally Posted by Mischa

if you continue and not stop, you are going places

Thanks very much Mischa. I fully intend to do both.

[Lon Haverly]

Boy, that is commitment! I am far too impatient to take that much time on a drawing. You did a nice job. Did you enjoy it? I would have quit or tired of it before putting that much time on it.

Part of the pleasure of drawing for me is that I can get it done in a shorter period of time. However, I rarely take that long on even an oil painting. Perhaps I would be a better artist if I was more patient. Perhaps that is what makes an artist unique - his level of patience. Sometimes the longer time spent on a drawing is worth it, and sometimes it isn't. And part of good charcoal drawing, or any drawing for that matter, is knowing when it is done - knowing when to quit.

There is a drawing on this forum that took three years! So this is a quickie by his standards.