ONLINE ART COURSE – COMPLETING THE RHINO CHARCOAL DRAWING

Today I completed the drawing in the third project of the charcoal module. It involved two stages – the shading with willow charcoal, and the final touches added with the charcoal pencil.

Here it is with the shading.

With further detail added with the charcoal pencil.

One thing I particularly like about this picture is the way Phil, our teacher, got us to blend the surrounding smudges and add further detailing to create the circular pattern in the background. It gives the picture tremendous energy. Using the kneaded eraser to pick out the highlights, and even some of the blades of grass, was a nice touch too. There wasn’t much work to add to the basic shading – the charcoal pencil was great for darkening the deepest shadow areas to produce more contrast, and also to add little touches of detail, such as some of the creases and folds in the rhino’s skin.

I don’t think I did too badly with this one, but as always, the more I look at my drawings, the more things I can find fault with!

The final project in this module is a self-directed challenge. The videos and information for this have not yet been made available, so I have no idea what’s in store! At any rate, I shall be very glad to get that one completed, and move on to something else, because charcoal is definitely not my medium, and I found it quite frustrating to work with.