Charcoal practice - child

This is a practice charcoal I did in my art class I teach, for the reference I used an image I saw on Facebook awhile back, can't remember who posted it! Just loved the colour version in watercolour, and wanted to try it in charcoal. This is the result. Size A2 Duration 2 hours.

WIP Jessica Ennis in Oils

This is a work in progress of an oil painting I was inspired to paint after watching our wonderful Team GB in the London Olympics and would like to dedicate this piece to one very special olympian gold medalist, Jessica Ennis. Well done girl!

This painting has taken me two days so far and will eventually have a mainly black background with a few bits and bobs from the audience (flashes etc.)

Oil Painting - Waters Edge

Medium: Oils

Paper: Stretched Canvas
Size: 20" x 16"
Duration: 4 − 6 hours



Well I've finally finished this oil painting (after watching Murray thrash that lump of Swiss Cheese!) which I started painting yesterday. Is it only me, but it is getting really difficult to sketch or paint when the Olympics is on, isn't it?


I'm calling this piece "Waters Edge" and it is a memory of when I went walking with my daughter Jasmine (that's her in the water) earlier in the week. We went to a local beauty spot,  down to the Gil, on the river Wansbeck just outside my local town of Morpeth in Northumberland.

Charcoal Drawing - Megan

This is a time lapse YouTube video I put together when I was sketching my niece Megan in charcoal, I put it together in iMovie on my iMac. I was really just practicing and getting to grips with some new willow charcoal sticks I bought. I forgot how beautiful it is as a medium, I was kind of put off as they always seemed to be really messy whenever I used them. It seems that having the paper nearly vertical helps to keep the artwork clean, well it did for me.

This whole sketch took me about 2-3 hours to complete and although a fairly nice image, I don't think I captured my niece as well as I wanted to.  I ended up using only one stick of charcoal for the whole image, by the time I had finished, that stick had shrunk to the smallest stubble of charcoal you could just about hold!

Though I have really enjoyed this session in charcoals and I expect I'll be visiting my willow charcoal sticks again, soon.

Here is the final image: