An experiment in carbon

I did some reading of J.D. Hillbery, an amazing pencil and charcoal artist, and through this discovered carbon.

Carbon pencils are softer than charcoal, yet still give the black blacks that are unachievable with graphite (even with a 9B, there is often a shine, and it's only still a dark, dark grey - not black).

Celebrity portriats are usually good reference photos because of the high contrasts.

Here's a drawing I did of actor Ben Stiller.



I was so pleased that I could get that striking black using carbon - it's so effective.

In this particular drawing I used graphite for the skin tones and carbon for the rest.

I spent a lot of time on his eyes. In the reference photo he was focusing on the camera, but in my drawing he's got a bit of a blank stare. No matter what I did, I couldn't make him focus!

Now I think I would spend a lot more time making sure the outline is perfect before moving to any shading. At this stage (October 2010) I think I was too much in a hurry to get shading to worry about the accuracy of the outline.

Also in this drawing I wasn't so careful with where I began and ended with my shading. I started with his eyes and worked outwards - my hand or piece of paper I was resting it on, smudging here and there. Carbon is notoriously difficult to erase, so what was smudged was smudged!