On Portraiture

Recently, I have taken interest in charcoal painting seeing my colleague who does awesome charcoal portraits. I know this is a totally different genre from my usual chibi and manga drawings but I really wanted to learn how to make a charcoal portrait. 

I asked the help of my colleague Sian Sajise, and fortunately she taught me the basics.

She made some comments on how I should hold the brush. (Definitely not the way I hold a pen). The brush should be slanted. 

I don’t know about other artists but so far these are the basics I have learned about charcoal painting based on my observation:

1. Draw your very light outline.

2. Outline your drawing with charcoal.

3. Do the basic tones. Remember all space must be filled. (Even “white” space, we’ll get to the erasing part later.)

4. Define the details by adding more charcoal or erasing charcoal on paper. Simply put, paint-erase-paint-erase to form shadows and highlights.

Sian said, being a novice, I am not bad at it and I actually have hope lol! I definitely hope to improve my charcoal painting skills as time goes by. For now, let me share the pieces I have done.

This is Arya Stark from The Game of Thrones. Sian made the outline. She let me have the feel of outlining and shading and helped me with the final shading.

First ever attempt on my own: I drew Actress Anna Torv as Agent Olivia Dunham (Fringe) because I like her character.

Second attempt at charcoal painting: I drew this beautiful model of Freywille. Hopefully my next post about this will be much better.