Charcoal

May include charcoal, vine charcoal, charcoal pencil, lead pencil with reductive use of eraser and sponge

Reductive Drawing

by dflowers10

Project description

Five Items with Meaning, vine and charcoal pencil 18″X24″ Believe it or not these items represent aspects of myself and my working life. Getting the metalic reflections on the bowl was key for me as well as the various attitudes of the creatures.
Leaf, Vine charcoal, 18″ X 24″

Here the rubbed on vine charcoal makes a smooth toned bed to work on. When drawing the leaf I paid extra attention to catching the light and was able to use the side and edge of my eraser to show the lyrical edges and veins of this collard leaf. Usually I prefer working to scale but here I enlarged the leaf to better fit the page.

This reductive method of working reminds me of painting using not just brushes but of using a dry or solvent soaked cloth to rub away colors or to change shades and tones. It is also good at making gradual value changes (sfumato) or a dramatic light shade contrast as defined using the word chiaroscuro.