Horse head sketch in charcoal

I finished the drawing adding in some dark blacks, some fine hairs with the neadable rubber and some highlight touches of white chalk.

A nice frame from my friendly framer in Torre del mar and I’m very pleased with the finished piece.

A sketch of ‘Vern’

‘Vern’ 30cm x 40cm Oil on board

The commissions I’ve been working on recently have evolved a great deal of geometry and measuring to get the subjects planned out on the canvas.

I fancied a break so I started this portrait of my Dad, Vern’ sketching in the garden during his visit a few weeks ago.

I fancied just diving in on this study without pre drawing, just to see how it would come out.

…well, I think it looks like him! The test will be to see what my sister thinks!

It took me about 5 hours over 2 days working from a hand full of Paparazzi pics I shot of him without him seeing me.

horse head sketch in charcoal

I used to think the great pleasure in charcoal was the wonderful rich lines you get when you really squeeze the black stick into the paper. It’s such a satisfying feeling.

But, I’ve grown up a bit now - it’s not the black that is interesting at all, it’s the use of that wonderfully diverse colour gray.

I think gray is such an underestimated colour and can be easily forgotten about in painting. It’s very expressive and mysterious at the same time.

Perhaps it is my past as a photographer and all those dark hours wet processing black and white prints, (yes I’m that old!) but I am on a mission to experiment and explore gray more in my painting, and find out more about its magic.

This horse is nearly finished now.

Steve

Here is the next stage of the drawing. I've left my arm in just to give a reference to the size of the image.

I've laid in most of the mid tone grey and I'm now putting in some dark charcoal black.

Next stage to follow.

Horse head sketch in charcoal

I have been occupied recently with commissions so today I thought I'd have a bash at this image to get myself back into some drawing.

It is on a sheet of coloured pastel paper 50cm x 65cm, the sketch is mostly in charcoal - then I'll finish off the highlights in chalk. 
This is the first stage, after lightly sketching in the form I'm now adding some of the shading.
More posts about this sketch - to follow. Steve