I wanted to do a blog on the process of me doing a charcoal portrait. So I decided to draw a 3/4 view of a bearded man. Before I started this drawing, I took a picture of the supplies. In this picture starting at the top left hand side I used vine charcoal sticks, paper stump, generals black charcoal pencil, generals white charcoal pencil, Generals 4H, 2H, HB graphite Master's Touch 1.5 hog hair soft flat brush, ( I used to blend and brush off charcoal dust) chamois cloth, knead eraser and 18" metal ruler.
I used vine charcoal and 4H generals graphite pencil. I started out with a horizontal line to establish the overall with. Next I drew a vertical line in order to establish the overall height. The lines intercept to form a axis.
Step 2
I'm only using vine charcoal now. I drew out the horizontal dimensions for the hair line, brow line, nose line, and chin line.
I drew out the contour of the head without a curve line using vine charcoal.
Step 4
I used the metal ruler to draw out the angles. I drew out the ear contour, hair line contour, beard contour and established the proportions and angle of the feature of the face. Also I used vertical lines or plumb lines to show the proportions of the widths of eye socket. You can start to see the planes beginning to form.
Step 5
I used the metal ruler to establish angle lines and plumb lines. I did this to confirm the proportions of the eye width and width of the mouth. If you notice I still have not used a curved line.
Step 6
I begin to slightly shade in the planes of the face using the generals 2H graphite pencil to shade in the side planes of the head nose. I also used it to shade in the bottom plane of the eye socket the planes of the lips. At this stage there is minimum of tones only two.
Step 7
I continue to use vine charcoal and I begin to use my HB generals graphite pencil on and around the eyes.
I used chamois cloth to erase the angle lines.
Step 8
I continue to use vine charcoal and I darkened the value using a blending stump to push the charcoal into the tooth of the paper. I also used the vine charcoal to create texture for the beard and develop the volume of hair.
Step 9
I also use the vine charcoal to develop the texture of the hair. As you can see I used it to add more value to the neck. I went on to add white charcoal to establish the highlights and 4B charcoal pencil for the beard and hair.
"The Bearded Man" done in graphite and charcoal on gray tone paper. © DWeaver Art
