Sketching Trees in Charcoal

This video demonstrates my approach to sketching trees in charcoal.  Starting with thumbnails approximately 1x2 inches and progressing into large studies. I am using basic tools for this with recommendations listed below.

I know that it has been sometime since I posted a video and this one is a bit longer than I normally post, but at least it isn't the longest I've posted.  Hope you enjoy it.

-Steve

LINK:
https://youtu.be/xr8BWFMES5E

Madison and Marverick

Madison and Maverick 

It has been a long time this year between posts. I moved our family half way across the country from Connecticut to Texas.  We all heard how time consuming that moving is, well that's just the start of it.

Trees in Charcoal

I drew these for Christmas presents this year.  They co-inside with an upcoming tutorial on sketching trees.  The above where started in graphite on Canson 140lb watercolor paper.
Then I add the dark and detail with Charcoal. 

In Transition

Here is a leftover from Halloween.  This was done on toned Strathmore in charcoal. This started months ago in my sketchbook and I had fun scultping this character.  Not someone I would want to meet in the dark.

-Steve

The Mummy

Happy Halloween!

In the spirit of Halloween (with no pun intended) I created Uncle Ned rising from the grave, in charcoal on toned Strathmore.

Caveman

Another one from my travel sketchbook.  he started out as a doodle and morphed into a rough design sketch. As my normal workflow lately; I started this with my Pentel Mechanical pencil and then added value with Charcoal at a later date.

Working with Vine Charcoal ...Value Sketching

Here I demonstrate how I use vine charcoal to do a value sketch which helps me to visualize a new character. It is a great approach to opening up one's imagination.

 I had to do a voice-over since the original audio contained too much noise.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/gSZdFenNlC8

Pastel Over Pencil

 

 James Gurney the author of "Dinotopia" covered Eugene Burnand's portraits that he did of World War 1 Legionnaires. His original post can be found HERE. The portraits were drawn in carbon and then colored in pastel and that combination and the realism that Eugene captured is brilliant.

Tree Study

  

Here are a few drawings of trees I did for fun recently.  They are done with a mix of graphite and charcoal on smooth Bristol paper.

-Steve

The Post

This sketch was done with graphite and charcoal on smooth Bristol paper. I haven't done any real sketches in charcoal though I have always liked the smooth gradients and rich dark tones that I have seen others achieve.