Expressive and Painterly Charcoal Sketching

1. Intro: Charcoal. It's dramatic, unpredictable. I crumbles under pressure, just like us. Hi, I'm Roberto, and welcome to Loose Charcalsketch. The course where we make ball marks, smudge freely, and occasionally win the battle against the blank page. Not always. We're gonna explore line, texture, value, keep it loose, but structure at the same time. Perfect lines? Overrated. Expressive strokes. Now, that's a good stuff. Whether you're brand new to draw or just tired of being too careful? You have my permission to loosen up. We're gonna keep it short, simple, fun, loose. We're gonna use a bunch of different tools. Oh, and I may or may not show you how to keep it off your face. 2. Block In: Ready to get your hands dirty a little bit. Charcoal is one of those things that it's really fun to use, but it gets dirty. It gets everywhere. It's all over my chair, all over my couch. But it's fun, and I love it. So let's get started. Sometimes when I start with a new stick, I just break it down into two pieces, depending on how long it is. I just easier to handle. Sometimes I'll just start using it as yes. Or sometimes I'll grab one of these sandpaper things, and I make sure I get a little bit more of a point on it. Make sure I have a paper towel next to you so you can What about the Xs so I got a little bit of a point here. So on the blockout for the drawing, we're going to keep it real simple. We're going to start by making a mark where our top the top of the head is going to be and making a mark for the chin. So now I'm going to try and fit the face right here. I mean, it's going to be dimensions are going to go over a little bit. It can be perfect, but it's just to get a rough idea. After that, we're going to start by kind of guessing what the outside of the face, outside of the head is. Again, this is going to change. When I block in the neck it to so it's not a floating head and it reads more structurally sound. Maybe blocking the cast shadow under the chin. Now before going further, I like to establish where my eyebrow line is going to be. That's more or less. This is probably going to move up a little bit. So let's just wipe it down with our fingers. After that, I block in or establish where the center line is. I. And after that, I make a mark for the bottom of the nose, not the tip of the nose, but the bottom where the nostril meets the face, basically. Doesn't need to be that dark? Little corners for the eyes. Eyebrow, eyebrows gonna go around here. This is going to go in a little bit. I'm gonna re establish this side. Because now that I have more information, I can make a more educated guess. It's all guesses, really. You're guessing, but the more information you have you put down, that is correct. The better your guess is going to be. See, like this is in the wrong spot. It's gonna be more like here. Bucking that shadow. Don't worry if you make any mistake I Charcoal juice just wipe it down. You just wipe it off. Kind of guess where the mouth is, the corner of the mouth, the corners of the mouth, squint to compress the values go in and kind of start blocking in the shapes of the shadow. They're going to help me find the structure of the chin area here. I go and just blocking all the shadow shapes I see. I just squint a lot of the details going to disappear, and it's going to make it easier for you to break this down into just two values. That's what I'm doing. Breaking it down to two values. Can guess what that eye and eyelash is connect your shapes, always connect your shapes. You end up with a better joint, better painting if you connect your shapes. I need to figure out what the ear is. It's a little bit of a tilt on the pose. So your ear is going to be lower than your eyes. But to find it, first, I need to find where the side born area is. The distance between the hairline and the eye is really important. So I'm going to make a mark there. I hope it's right, goes down. You can also use your charcoal stick to get an angle to be a better idea where that top of the ear is going to be. Little show for the ear, close the neck right here. That's pretty good guess in the beginning, I guess. A little bit of that hair. Looking the shape of that hair. Now that the ear information, I can go ahead and block in the back of the head to give this more mess. So it looks like she's got the cranial shape. Close up. Okay, now I can grab a little smaller piece and blocking the dark of the hair. Close this blocking the shadow shape. Don't be afraid to make your abstract shapes marks. I think that's pretty good for a loose, quick blocking. Okay, we're back. 3. Smudging: I took a little break. And now that I'm looking at it, I think we can go ahead and start messing around with the charcoal. In the beginning, I usually just use my finger to wipe off the excess of the vine and to get a feeling of, like, the gradiation that goes from dark to light. So don't be afraid to lose your marks, your shapes because if you found them once, you'll be able to find them again. What I'm doing now is something similar to when you squint. When you squint, your values are compressed and a lot of the detail gets lost, and that's what you want. So I'm doing the same right now. I'm getting rid of all that initial detail I had. And what that is doing is It's unifying everything. All the shapes, all the values. If you don't be afraid to lose that. You pay attention. Right now, if you look at the reference, I'm using my finger in the charcoal that's there already to block in some of the half tones that I see the reference. Remember, I have a Peter tel. This one those shop Peter tiles that are really durable. Wipe off the charcoal from your finger. Okay, now we can go ahead and re establish our shapes again. I think I may lose this edge, too. This one too. Get some of that warmth. From the nose. This edge is a little softer. Try and save the white of the paper for your highlights. So I'm going around it and trying not to touch where the highlights are. Because once you go over it, it'll be hard to erase it all the way down to the white. So let's try and preserve that. It's all finger drawing right now, playing with the shapes. And I think this is good for this step. On the next video, we're going to reestablish our shapes, our shadows and try and figure out if our tilt and structure is correct. Okay, let's figure 4. ReestablishingShapes: If our eyes, nose and mouth are in the right place right now. Let's start by reestablishing this corner going down Mastro we establish that cast shadow. And this leads it kind of leads to the corner of the eye here. Reestablish the eyebrow. I'm just doing the same almost the same thing I did on the first video, finding the shapes, the shadows. But now I have more information and I have some of the half tones already established. So re establishing your shapes is just going to make this stage a lot easier. And on the long run, it's going to make a stronger draw closing down your shapes. You're kind of making a capsule of all your shapes. Swing has to be a little wider. It's squin to see which edges disappear. I think I can combine this in this. Find the corner of the mouth again. Corners of the mouth are almost always lower than the center. Uh. I'm gonna find this angle again. I had it wrong here. I think it's more like this. And then to the center. And I think that's going to get me the till that I'm looking for. We still with that eye. As you can see, it's a lot of back and forth. You find it, you lose it. You find it again. I'll probably end up losing losing it again. I think any more on this side. Okay, now I don't want to use my finger anymore because if I do, I'm going to wipe off all these shapes that I just re established, which I might end up doing, but right now, I'm going to be a little more careful and use one of these little stumps. Well, this is a big one, or it's the biggest one I have. So I'm going to start by doing the same thing almost the same thing I was doing with my finger, and that's kind of linking all these shapes together. It's a great way to get a softer edge. And if you want to get rid of detail. Okay. Let's keep going closest shape. So this is loose, right? But in order for a loose drawing to look good or to be convincing, it needs to have a sense of structure and form, and we're getting that illusion of form by really compressing the half tones, compressing the values, and trying to get a sense of where the light is coming from. So I know the light's coming from here, so it's dark over here, but there's a gradiation that goes over the face like this. Almost like an if you're painting an egg, it's basically the same thing, but I mean, it's an egg with holes for the eyes, a nose and a mouth, right? But it's the same thing. We want to get that gradation in this case, from left to right. We want to get that first between before we go and work on an eye for an hour or so. Okay, so that's okay. The next video, I'm going to use my razor to bring out some of the features. Let's do a little bit more of this since I'm here already. Remember, if you found it once, you'll be able to find it again, so don't be afraid to lose it to get rid of an edge or kind of blow out an ear if it's not working. In this case, it wasn't working. I'm gonna have to go back to it. Okay, we're back. 5. Eraser and charcoal pencils: And before we start using an eraser, Let's kind of establish some of the shapes again. This cast shadow is very helpful. This is going to help me find the center of the mouth. So less right there. H h h you notice I got quiet for a little bit is because I'm really thinking and paying attention to where I'm supposed to lose an edge, lose a shape, combine two shapes together. And that takes a lot of processing power for your brain. And I don't like doing voiceover, so I like to record myself live. And I think that gives you a better idea of how I think and how my process has helped me develop this up to this point. I don't know if that makes any sense. So re establish this shape again. So now Jo Jo now I find this little shadow under the ear. And I think we found our ear here. It's a sneaky one. They usually are when you have a tilt and then it's a three quarter angle til. She's looking that way, so it's hard. So don't be afraid if you have to draw it more than once. Okay, now, let's grab our eraser and kind of Well, before we do that, I'm going to kind of compare the values a little more. At this point, we're not establishing but refining the placement of shapes, corners of eyes, mouth, noses, ears. But I can do it in different ways. I can do it with my charcoal. I can do it with my finger or I can do it with the stump. And that's what I'm doing. I'm just kind of smudging shapes together until I find the right placement of that edge or that corner. For instance, this eyelash is supposed to go a little further that way. So I'm going to try and do it with this tool right here. Use everything at your disposal. Okay. I think you found that I I start using my razor to develop the form a little better. It's not just for highlights, but for modeling also. So I know by experience, when the lights coming from this side, this area is going to be lighter, but there's also a set of highlights that go here, here, here, and then a little bit here. So if you saw the planes of the head, you're probably familiar with it. Okay. I think we're getting ready to move on to the next lesson to the next video. Okay. We're 6. Slow down and establish darks: This is where we slowed down a little bit. At this point, what I want to do is look at the overall picture and be really critical of your placement and structure angles and all that good stuff. I'm going to fix some of the shapes here, some of the placement. And at this point, I think I can use any tool at my disposal. I'm going to start with the eyes here. I'm going to make sure the eyes are lining up. So I use my eraser first and one and then the charcoal and the other one. The video about these kneaded erasers is that you can kind of shape it into the shape that you want. If you want a flat, you want a point, you can do that. The razor. Find that white on the eyeball. Something cool about this lighting is that it's coming from this side, but it's not from above. It's from I think it's from a little bit below. So a reference picture, if you think about the overall egg effect, it's gonna be a little darker here, so richer, darker half tones than over here. And it's usually and portraits is usually the opposite. Brighter over here, darker over here, but not here. So it may throw you off a little bit. Is just something to keep in mind. ITF, I'm going to go in charcoal and fix this shape. Do be afraid to blow on the on the charcoal on the paper to blow off some of the remains from the charcoal. Now, I can come in with the finger, pull that edge off some here and reestablish the shape. Can establish the dark of this hair. And so I like to use is the general charcoal pencils. I have different different hardness. I use the hard, the medium, and the soft. The hard one is great for adjusting your values in a real subtle way. So what I'm going to try and do is to get the illusion that there's a gradiation going from here to here. This up forehead area being a little darker, but not too much. So I want to go real subtle, and this is going to help me. And this is how I do it. Darn it Sometimes I turn it upside down and go again. And now I got the feeling that this is more in the darker half tone than this. I'm going to try and find the highlight right here, which is not really a highlight, but it's a little brighter than the rest. Who's that eye again? I have to find it again. Who's her eyebrow? Find it again. Again with the Charcoal pencil. I noticed I'm trying to get the sense of volume before I go and neodal on features. At the end of the day, I may not even do any work at the features and just leave the join us with the sense of volume. Okay. Now the beauty of using these pencils on top of your vine charcoal is that when you apply it on the paper, it kind of moves the vine around a little bit, and it gives you a illusion of a softer edge. Not only that, but it just looks it makes your joints look looser without having to go and do anything with the finger. I'm gonna try and break up this edge with a pencil by lightly sketching it around it. And I didn't only add value as a transition for the hair, but I broke up the perfect lines that I had there before. Now, you can lose some of those lines that are left behind with your finger. Try and establish the dark shapes that are in the eye without drawing every little line that I see. Try not to draw lines because there's no lines in nature, right? So all shapes, values, color, but there's no lines. I like using lines as design elements, but not to define an edge like right here. So I'm using them as design elements. Do the same thing with your eraser. Reestablish that corner of the mouth. And since I have my charcoal pencil out, I'm gonna start modeling some of the shapes that I see here. It's quaint to get rid of the detail. The less detail, the more believable your drawing is going to be well established shapes here. Also, you can use this to wipe off a little bit of charcoal. For instance, here, there's a little bit of light getting caught in the bottom of the chin because there's another plane. So instead of going with my finger because my finger is going to wipe off a lot of charcoal, these are great to just do it in a subtle way. So I did that, if I darken around it a little bit, I'll this my charcoal pencil. I'll give you an illusion of a little bit of light getting caught in that plane right there. Okay. We're getting 7. Strengthen Halftones: Real close to the end of a sketch here. Remember, this is just a sketch. Just a study real loose. We don't want to spend 80 hours on this, obviously. We just want to get good exercise out of it. It's great for painting because when you paint this way without lines, without drawing in the traditional way that people think of drawing, it really helps you getting out of that box. So it's real painterly if you think about it. So I'm going to go back to my tool and just go a little harder on those half tones. If you're not getting the value that you want, you need to go a little darker. You can always do this somewhere when there's charcoal and go again in that area that you're having difficulty. So you're kind of borrowing from other areas. Fine d. So the mouth a little bitter. Notice how to grab my eraser, make it flat, but also give it a little bit of width on this side, and grab it, push it down with my finger, and then drag it. So it's almost like a brushstroke. Y so this shape right here is not really working. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to lose this, bring it up to a half tone value and then go in and darken the center of it. And now I got the nostril and I got the halftone around it. I think it works better. All right, guys, let's 8. Lose Edges and Finish: Finish this. Let's finish this. This point, I just want to get a better transition from side to side. Just want the form to read a little better. Is Quinn are your reference, Quinn? Are you doing. Uh Again, we're not trying to get a hyper realistic drawing. We're just trying to get something something sketchy, something that makes a strong statement. And we can use as a training tool for other mediums such as pinning When I'm having trouble defining shapes, I grab base eraser. And I use it to kind of, like, I'm drawing but I'm subtracting instead of adding. So in this case, I'm just making the ear a little bigger. Use it to add highlights as well. You said to design elements like cross hatching. A I'm going to do the upside down trick technique. Add some more design elements for the background. Who's that edge. Um, we come in with a darker pencil. Reestablish that eye that's in shadow. I'm going to separate the hair from the skin on the shadow side. The hair is going to be a little bit darker, and that's helping me add structure to this eye socket and this side plane that's in shadow. And the ear itself, I'm just gonna block in the big shapes, the values that I see, and I see it being darker a little bit here with some highlights, but I'm not going to worry about that. It's going to establish this cast shadow. I'm not gonna draw every hair that I see. I'm just going to try and get illusion hair like that. Lose this edge, lose that. Just to make it look like she's kind of blending with the background, emerging from the back. Yeah, that's about it. I think I'll move on. From here? Oh, actually, maybe pick up some of that charcoal to get some information. There's a little shelf right here. That kind of frames this highlight a little better. Maybe soften this edge a little bit. Soften this edge. And I think that's good enough for a sketch. Nice and loose. But with structure and form taken into consideration. If we do a lot of this, you'll have a better time. I don't want to say easier, but You'll be more successful in longer efforts. But if your goal is to just loosen up, these are great exercises. 9. CharcoalConclusion: Hey, guys, thank you for hanging out and getting messy with me. Hopefully you're feeling more relaxed, more playful, and way less rigid about your drawings. Remember, charcoal is supposed to shift, smudge, and surprise you. So forget about perfect lines. There's no lines in real life. If there's one thing that you take away from this class, it's got to be that edge and value can make or break a drawing. Remember, you're drawing shapes. You're not drawing eyes or noses or mouth. If the shapes in the right place with the right value and edge, it looks like an eye. So keep things loose, playful, and keep those projects coming. I'm really looking forward to seeing your drawings.