Charcoal Portrait Of Dwain, The Lumber Yard Man

This is a portrait I did for my own pleasure and for practice. It is Dwain who is just a guy who works odd jobs this portrait was inspired by a photo of him on a temporary assignment at a lumber yard.

I liked the dark mood that was in the photo and in his expression. I did not intend for him to look sad but the photo was taken when he was especially tired.

As in all my drawings, I began with a 2b or 4b pencil and then after the basic composition is laid out I move to charcoal or whatever medium I am working in.  I did the first layer in hard charcoal and then did a lot of blending with a blender stub. I wanted to leave the picture a little impressionist or parts of the face to be undeveloped and other parts to be overdeveloped for emphasis, but I got so enthralled with the process that I kept working it and developed a more realistic picture than I intended.

I saw an art student of mine use tissue to buff the medium and soften it which is a nice technique to give a softer texture so I borrowed her method and buffed out the medium in the background and parts of the face.

I finished the portrait with a soft charcoal pencil which is a darker medium. I did the darkest areas being mindful not to overdo it  I was going to leave the hair in the shadows so the face would look like he was just about to emerge from darkness but the softer darker charcoal had such a nice contrast to the buffed layer I had created earlier that I couldn't help but draw in the coarse hair.

Charcoal Portrait of  The Lumber Yard Man. 

I think I am very happy with the project.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 

Adron 

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(c) Adron

Mixed Media Portrait Face of Young Man Named Shawn

This is a picture of a young man's face that was drawn in pencil on water color paper that was splattered wit browns reds oranges and yellows. I traced the face with a water based ink marker which were washed with clear water to soften the effects.The details were redrawn drawn with black gesso and white gesso. The final touches were with acrylic paint.

Mixed Media Portrait of a Young Man

It is nice and a little more developed than I had hoped since I was aiming for something a little more suggestive and abstract.

This is available to purchase as a print, framed art, and stretched canvas click here to view the options.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

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(c) Adron

Pencil And Charcoal Portrait Of A Young Man Looking Over His Shoulder

This is a drawing of a face in pencil and charcoal. It is a portrait of a young man looking over his shoulder. The lighting in my resource material was very interesting and had strong shadows on the far side of the face.

I liked drawing this because of the opportunity to do a slightly minimalist approach and the complexity of the shadow areas.

Pencil and charcoal sketch of a man looking over his shoulder.

I started drawing with an HB pencil then went to a 2b then 4b.  After using the stub to smooth things out a bit I used light, medium, and dark charcoal pencils.  I didn't use an eraser until the very last for a sort of cleaning up.

It was about an hour and a half and very relaxing. The paper size is 5x9.

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I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 

Adron

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Watercolor Portrait Of A Young A Young Man With Sideways Look.

This is a little watercolor with some instruction and commentary,   I painted this to relax one night this week. It was inspired by a photo. I sketched it out the other night but didn't have time to paint it until later.

Watercolor portrait of a Young Man with a Sideways look

I started with the background and did some washes in just a few areas. Next I did the shadow areas of the face.
I added the impression of the shirt and jacket but kept it minimal.
I used black in the hair but thought it was too much black so I added violet and blue.
I splashed some blue and reds in the face and built up the shadows.
I wanted to keep away from the warm colors and was going to do it in blacks but thought that lacked imagination so I added a lot of lavenders and violets.

It is a fine painting and I enjoyed painting it. I hope you enjoy looking at it.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

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Mixmedia Portrait Of A Young Man With a Tilt to his head.

This is a portrait I did of a man.  The face is slightly turned.  I used pen and markers and watercolor.  I was thinking of doing something a little more experimental but just enjoyed drawing him so much that I didn't play with the different techniques that I intended.

Portrait in mix media of a young man.

I started the drawing with an HB pencil on some practice watercolor paper, then went over it with a .1mm marker after that I used some watercolors.  I didn't want to make the picture too common and was going to play with other colors but actually toned down the abstraction that I wanted to do.  I might try a different approach next time.

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Charcoal Drawing Of A Young Man With Straight Hair.

This is Chad.  I started this sketch at the dentist office waiting for my kid. I was working from a photo so I was able to finish it later. It was just a doodle I did for a few weeks but gave up because I got bored with the project.

It was drawn in a sketchbook. I used various pencils including charcoal and graphite,

Charcoal Sketch of a young man with straight hair. 

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

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(c) Adron

Charcoal Portrait Of A Young Man

This was a little something I did in my spare time.

Charcoal Portrait of a Young Man

I started this while waiting for my daughter at the dentist, and worked on it later at different times. I was using some pictures I was given to compost it.  The picture that I was using had been taken with a flash and so there were not many shadows for drama.

I started with pencil and then used charcoal and then combined charcoal and pencil together. I used the blending stub a lot and tried to get the shadows to work out. I wanted to do a good job on the face and leave the clothing as minimal for contrast.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

Charcoal Portrait of Young Man

Josh

This is a portrait drawn in charcoal.  Josh has thick coarse hair, a strong chin and piercing eyes so I wanted to give his face a try. I decided to keep the drawing minimal and to let it look like a drawing. I kept the coarse hair very simple and just tired to have the effect without belaboring it. I did not want to do a lot of blending but felt the pencil marks were too tedious so I did a little more blending than I really wanted to.

Charcoal portrait of Josh.

I arranged the pose as the classic of one shoulder to be high and the other low. I know a forward face is common and boring but I thought it best brought out his features.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

Charcoal And Pencil Portrait Of A Young Man

Whenever I have to wait for my kids at any place I take my bag with sketch stuff and draw something rather than waste the time being impatient.

This is a picture of a young man who was in a photo of a couple of people in a desert or on a beach.   I liked the piercing look he had. The resource material showed a lot of dark shadows and long dark hair but art is editing so I change things to give it a softer quality.

Charcoal portrait of a young man on the beach.

I lightly drew this in 2b pencil and then went over it with a hard charcoal pencil. I added a little more with the 2 b pencil and then went to a medium charcoal. I did a very little blending with a stub since I wanted it to retain a quality of a drawing. I finished with a little more charcoal and used a kneaded erasure to soften some areas.  He had long black hair but I left it mostly out since fashions change.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

Sketch Of The Ice Explorer

This sketch is of an explorer

Charcoal and Pencil Sketch of an Explorer 

I did something a little different with this picture by giving the paper a rub over with a graphite pencil and blending stub to give it a texture background. That way I could draw the portrait over but have some texture show through. I don't really know why I wanted to do it but I think it works out nicely especially since I was able to erase areas to give smooth contrast and effect.

I wanted the drawing to look like a drawing so I left some of the pencil work rough. I started with a hb graphite pencil and did an outline and under work of shading. Then I blended lightly but not so much as to lose the pencil marks. I went over the picture with a light charcoal pencil and did some blending on that then used a dark charcoal pencil to give the deep dark. I finished with a white charcoal pencil to give the picture some highlights.

I was trying all the while to focus on the direction my pencil strokes were going since I wanted it to look like a drawing. I kept resisting the urge to blend everything because I wanted the blending to be the base for the pencil texture technique.

I am happy with the results and will try some more experiments with this technique.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

Charcoal Sketch of a Young Man

This is a sketch I did quickly one afternoon while waiting for my kids. it is of a young man who had light hair but dark eyes.

It is drawn with pencil and then I went over it in charcoal. I did a little blending but not too much. I want to keep some of the character of the pencil.

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Quick Charcoal Sketch of Young Man 3/4 View

This is a sketch of a young college-aged man. The 3/4 view is a classic view and is more interesting than straight forward view. I liked the strong shadow on the far side of the face and the dramatic black shirt under his white jacket. I left the right side of the page blank to give drama to the shadow in his cheek. The hair was brown in the resource material but I left it white to give the attention to the eyes and the face.

I drew this in pencil first and then worked it over with several charcoal pencils. It was done in about a half hour since that was all the time I had available. I would have worked on the mouth and general details more if I had time.

I liked using the contrasting techniques of having the charcoal blended on the face and left as raw strokes in the hair and shadows. I gave the shirt a lot of rubbing to get a flat black effect I wanted a different contrasting effect.

Charcoal sketch of a young man. 3/4 view.

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Mixed Media Portrait of Young Man

I drew this to pass the time and to practice a different technique. I started with pencil for a basic layout of the face. Then I used a black conte' wax pencil to go over parts of it. After that I used watercolor pencils to lay in the values and in different areas. I washed over the watercolor pencil with a small number 2 brush using clear water to spread the watercolor pencil. I finished with a little panes grey watercolor to deepen a few areas for contrast.

Mixed Media Portrait.  

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Quick Sketch of Man In Coat

Quick Charcoal Sketch of a man in a coat.

I drew this when I had an extra half hour to kill. It was inspired by a guy in the waiting room at the kid's doctor. I started with a hb graphite pencil and did the rough sketch then moved to 2b charcoal pencil and alternated between those and a medium charcoal pencil. I have been experimenting with using a graphite pencil over the charcoal to see if it gives a different effect. I think it gives a compromise blend between the two. I will need to study it more.

I did not use the blending stub on this at all. time did not allow and my time with the model was too short.

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Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. 
Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

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Charcoal Portrait of Strong Man

Charcoal Sketch Of  Strong Man

This is a drawing I did of a man with a sideways look and a tilt to his head. It was a quick sketch and I did it in about a half an hour.

I want my drawings to look like drawings with the effect of the pencil or the charcoal.

I did not do any blending with the stub in this picture. I used a charcoal hb and a charcoal medium pencil.

For the amount of time I spent on it I am happy.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

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Charcoal Portrait of Young Man In The Bright Sun.

Charcoal portrait of young Man Jan 24/13

Charcoal Portrait of Young Man In the bright sun.

This was a fun and relaxing project. I worked on it only for a little while as a practice project. I was trying to keep it underdeveloped on purpose, I wanted to show the medium of charcoal pencil in its effect. 

I used a hb and a extra soft charcoal pencils for this drawing.
I stained the background by rubbing the stub all over it then used the hb pencil to texture the background and followed with another blending of the stub.  This working of the background made his face move forward and the untouched areas of his face to be brighter by contrast. 
I am very happy with the project.   

Charcoal Portrait of Young Man Looking Away

Portrait of Young Man Looking Away

I drew this in my sketchbook while my daughter was having her music lesson. It was started with a 2b graphite pencil and finished with a soft 6b charcoal pencil. It took about an hour. I liked the shadows in his face they were different from other 3/4 profile portraits I've seen. I want to leave areas blank on purpose to give an effect. I am not sure what effect it is I am striving for but I am growing my style in that direction. I wish I had more time to explore this type of composition in color medium, but I like charcoal and feel it is teaching me a lot about value and texture. I think I would like to experiment more on darker paper and mix in white chalk for highlights. Drawing the eyes and mouth were difficult because of the pose with the angle. The shadow around the eyes in particular had a restrictive margin of gray, if I went too dark the gray would look like a woman with runny makeup. I found myself putting in black then blending it in and then dabbing it out with a kneaded erasure. I had some of the same struggle with the shadows in the cheeks.


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Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

Charcoal Sketch of Man With Dark Eyes

Charcoal Sketch of Man with Dark Eyes

I did this sketch in charcoal pencil in my sketchbook last week. I wanted to focus on his deep dark eyes and his piercing gaze. I am trying to develop a style of drawing that emphasizes a point of interest and minimizes non-essentials, so you see part of the face is blank. The effect is like an overexposed photograph but it is on purpose.

I did a lot of blending with a stub and tried a little blending with a bristle brush.  I liked how the soft shadows worked out. I tied to use a little white chalk but it didn't have much effect on this paper, it did tone down some of the values of the shadows.

I left the tee-shirt undefined except for a few folds and creases to illustrate the shoulders and arms. I did not use much blending work on the shirt so it would have a contrasting texture.

This drawing took about two and a half hours. It was fun to draw.  The more I work in charcoal the more I appreciate its possibilities and learn the values, tones, and structure of the drawing.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

Quick Charcoal Sketch of Man

Quick Sketch Of a Man Named Dave

I did this quick sketch of a man named Dave while I was waiting for my kids music lesson. It took about a half hour. I was trying to get an effect of economy with my medium and not put everything in so I left out the hair on the left top and left details of cheek and brow. I could have done more with the tie and and coat but my intent was to capture an effect. I used two charcoal pencils a 2b and a medium, both were generals. the sketchbook was a Strathmore 11x14 green book.

Mans Face drawn in sketchbook

I think I did a little touch up at home with a kneaded eraser. Some times sketchbooks are unloving to charcoal projects and in the few times It was handled it was smudged.

I am happy with the project which really was a practice drawing.

Charcoal Portrait Drawing of Man

Charcoal Portrait Drawing of a Young Man

Portrait in sketchbook

I drew this portrait in my sketchbook from a very small photo of Mike. Drawing from photos are not the easiest thing and I feel the results are often flat. There were good shadows to work with but as is often the case with photos the lighting was too glaring and washed out a lot of the detail of his face.

I was not happy with the pose of the head, when the head is tilted I feel things get lopsided, but you work with what you have.

After a light pencil sketch. I went over it with a soft charcoal pencil. I had to work over it a few times to get the values right and there was a lot of rubbing with the blending stub and even with my finger. It  actually is a good likeness.

(c) Adron