Diane Flick

Realistic Charcoal Drawing for Beginners

Hi Lili! Thank you so much for taking my class, for your honest review and for submitting your beautiful project! You really have amazing control with this medium. Have you worked with it before? Or maybe with chalk pastel or something that is similarly textured?  Your boat is really crisp and beautifully rendered with all the values represented very well, and that is very difficult to do if you have never worked with charcoal before.  Your water, your sky, and your background bushes are also very believable in their textures and range of values.  I have a couple very minor bits of feedback for you if you are looking to tweak it a bit more.  You could very gently extend the ends of your clouds so that they disappear into the sky more gradually. It will make them appear less obvious and more subtle since they’re in the distant background. You could also soften the very bottom edge of the large clump of trees on the right so that it disappears more organically into the shore of the water.  That’s all I have for you though. I can’t find anything else to adjust. You have done a beautiful job. I hope you continue drawing and making art! I saw you took my watercolor class as well and I’m looking forward to seeing that painting next. Thank you again!

I promise that it is my first drawing with charcoal :-) but your explanations are great ! And thank you for your nice advice. As I told you on the other project (shells), I had a few years experimenting with watercolor but I was not able to paint anything for the last 18 months. It was my little comeback at my desk and very enjoyable ! Because of that previous experience I can understand the values and the fact that background should be less precise than foreground but I had forgotten a lot ... It will comeback I suppose. So thank you ! 

Thank you Diane, I love it !!! 
Your way is very conforting and it is quite easy and satisfying to follow you. 
<img srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/discussion/tmp/62b966cd.jpg 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/discussion/tmp/62b966cd.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/discussion/tmp/62b966cd.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="my first charcoal - image 1 - student project">
 
I think I could use it before watercolor to study the values. I will try so others landscapes.

my first charcoal

Company

Work With Us

Teach with Us

Shop

Mobile