charcoal, sketch looking across the beach at sunset

Across the beach, sunset, 16 ins square, charcoal on watercolour paper. Vivien Blackburn



A quick sketch in charcoal with some conte pencil to push the darkest areas. I used watercolour paper which didn't grip the charcoal very well. The texture worked ok for the sand but was sometimes annnoying in other areas.

The sand has a little more tone than shows in the photograph - again the flash bounces off the white paper, lightening it >:>(

details:





Comments

Shirley Anne Sherris said…
Hi
Love the way you get the reflections looking like reflections.
Try putting a piece of tissue paper over the flash (use a couple of bits of blue-tak to hold it). It provides the light but reduces the harsh flash back.
Cheers
6:56 pm
vivien said…
yes I must try it - the annoying thing is that I told my daughter about that technique and she's used it very successfully - I'm always in too much of a rush and I forget to do it! I do hate harsh flash light
7:48 pm
Suzanne McDermott said…
Yes, the reflection area is marvelous!
1:11 am
vivien said…
thanks Suzanne :)
2:43 pm
Lindsay said…
I totally agree about the reflections and I love the texture in the rocky out cropping.
I've posted a thanks on my blog to you today for recommending the Lyra Skin tone pencils.
here is the link:
http://straightlinesout.blogspot.com/2008/01/portriat-project-sketchbook-and.html
1:22 pm
vivien said…
thanks Lindsay - I'm off to see what you've done with the Lyra skintones :) I'm glad you liked them.
2:33 pm
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