Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Head study

Charcoal on newsprint, about 6.5 x 7 inches

This is a practice drawing, done from a photo. The subject is Beryl Markham, a well known aviator. She was the first pilot to fly the Atlantic from east to west, which made for a long night. I think the year she did it was 1935. In art school, we did a lot of drawings on smooth newsprint. The rough variety, which seems to be more commonly available, doesn't work as well. But smooth newsprint and charcoal pencil work really well together. It's a softer surface than most other papers, very nice to work on. Unfortunately, it's not archival. It yellows quickly.