I Lieu of Sketching Today I went Shopping.....!

Let me state it clearly and plainly: There is no better shopping experience than in an art supplies store. Nothing can compete. I haven't been up to either drawing or painting for nearly a week due to a weird head cold that knocked me sideways, so I thought I would cheer myself up and replenish some of my art supplies. I bought a new bottle of that wonderful Liquin, white, black charcoal and sanguine sketching pencils, two huge fat sticks of graphite and two 5" x 5" canvases. There is absolutely no need to photograph them but I just felt like it. Somehow, even this folly keeps the oar in the water. Hope springs eternal. I hope to have some more sketches on this blog by the end of the weekend.

Happy Purchase.

Another Quick Sketch

I have had no success with painting this August, so I have been feeling the pinch of failure and despondancy that projects are lying around unfinished. I got home from work tonight aching to do something, anything, that could be called 'creative work'; this quick sketch is the result. It took me 40 minutes and it is based on and inspired by a self portrait by Fantin Latour. I loved the darks and tried to emulate that in my charcoal sketch, and succeeded up to a point, but the flash photography ate into the coal blacks which is a pity. I might just take another photograph because this one is really not the best, but I am happy that something has been done this week, and so I am posting it. I learned an amazing amount about the medium of charcoal in the short 40 minutes - more than I have learned in a lifetime - so I shall definitely process more charcoal work. Only it is so messy and where do I store it?

Quick Sketch in Charcoal