Jeff’s Blog

We recently replaced our dining room chandelier.  I like the shape of it and have been wanting to draw it for a while.  And since I’ve been playing with charcoal recently, I wondered what it would be like to draw it with charcoal.

As with most of the stuff I’ve done with charcoal, there are parts that I like and parts that I don’t.

Starting with the stuff I like… I think I’ve captured the overall feel of the chandelier: the general shape is there; basic pattern of light and dark.  I like the dark on dark of the drawing.  And I think I did an OK job pushing the rear lights into the background.

Now onto the “not so great” stuff:  the lines lack any sort of sympathy for the subject.  Instead of modeling the shape of the light domes and relying on form and shadow to create separation, they’re mostly separated by lines.  There are a few too many spots where the lines meet the background which lack any degree of blending whatsoever.   There is an overly dark spot in my background below the lights on the right of the picture.  And I should have put a little more contrast between the background and the light domes — they’re dim, but they’re not THAT dim.

I was shooting for a soft, ethereal feel to the image, and I’m just not sure I achieved that.  But for those of you wondering, I actually DID use my kneaded eraser in this drawing to pull out the highlights in the light globes.

Charcoal is a difficult medium to gain any degree of control over.  But I will continue to work on it until I feel it’s time to move on to something else.

I tried to get outside to draw today.  I really did.  But it was cold again.  Maybe I’m just a wimp, but the thought of sitting down somewhere for thirty minutes or more when the temp is in the 40’s is just not my idea of fun.  So, another inside pic.  Sigh.

More charcoal play, though.  So that was fun. I’m really enjoying the organic quality charcoal is bringing to my work; though not so much on this one as the vases.  I can’t wait to try it on an outdoor subject.

In the meantime, I claim victory over Everyday Matters challenge #159 – Draw a Favorite Cooking Tool.  A stove is a tool, isn’t it?

I finally broke down and bought a box of willow charcoal today.  This is my first charcoal sketch (well, my first one in 22 years).  Between illnesses, a heavy work schedule, a bunch of home projects, opening day (woot!) and some good-ol-fashion laziness, this is my first sketch at all in several weeks (unless you count some sketches I did as part of the planning phase of those home projects).

The weather in Chicago has not been cooperative, either.  I keep telling myself, “if it’s nice tomorrow, I’ll get outside and draw.”  And then the next day is cold, windy, rainy, snowy, or all of the above.  I know this is what ‘Everyday Matters’ is all about, but I’m not afraid to tell you, I’m getting real tired of drawing the stuff sitting around my home.

That said, I can’t tell you what a pleasure it was to draw with a burnt tree.  The charcoal is nice and dark, and smudgy and splotchy and, well, almost paint-like the way I can push it around on the page.  As far as a rendering, this is most definitely not my most accurate work.  But I felt like I was really able to connect with the sketch in ways I haven’t felt up to this point.  I will definitely be doing more charcoal sketches; I just need to figure out a way to not get charcoal dust all over the house.