Patrick’s Free Art Course – Lesson 03 Shading – Exercise E

For this one we are going to expand the tools some. And if you decided to get some of the supplemental DVD’s and book’s you probably already have started using other materials.  But if you have not lets do it now.  To expand from just using pencils we are going to add charcoal.  Charcoal presents new opportunities but also challenges for the artist. But you will find its much easier to get nice gradients and there are many more interesting effects  you can do with it. The down side to introducing it is that working in charcoal well requires a lot of study on its own.  But I think its worth it and its a logical next step from working with just pencil.

Now since this is a free course I do not have time to write a book on working in charcoal. And to be honest there a much much better people to write those books than me.  So as always I will give you both free and pay options for getting up to speed. And of course I will update them as I find more.

Now use the resources below to get up to speed in using charcoal. There is plenty there to keep you busy for a while:)

Free books: (These books are in no special order.)

Charcoal Drawing Without A Master.

Drawings in Charcoal and Crayon for the Use of Students and Schools By Frank Fowler

Light and shade with chapters on charcoal, pencil, and brush drawing By Anson Kent Cross

Painting and drawing in charcoal and oil  By Edmond James Fitzgerald

Practical drawing  By Edwin George Lutz
Not free options:)

Life Drawing in Charcoal

DVD Sketching The Portrait With Casey Baugh

By the way you really should visit Casey’s site and take a look at his work. Below is an example.  caseybaughfineart.com

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Patrick’s Free Art Course – Lesson 03 Shading – Exercise D

OK now for something completely different. Get your sketch book and materials and go outside. Go draw things lots of things. Draw trackers, dogs, cars, trees, buildings anything and everything.  And try and remember what you have learned about shading.

Also try quick drawings where you just capture the gesture of the object.  Think of gesture as the essential character of a figure or object. You have seen this when you see a few lines really capturing a person or object.

Try to do this part every day for a week. And honestly it would not hurt to do it every day for your entire life.

Here is a nice John Singer Sargent water color as an example of a quick outside watercolor.

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