Just some value sketching concept thumbnails from a few days ago, and a rushed page of sketches for a children’s toy block that I cobbled together yesterday for a project.
Below is a quick study sketch of John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Ms. George Swinton. John Singer Sargent is one of my very favourite fine artists of all time, and I find his charcoal work more engaging than his oil paintings. I read that he got frustrated with the hassle and tedium of oil paints (which puts me in good company) and began to prefer charcoal later in his career. It’s not hard to see why; he was outrageously skilled in rendering the drama between light and dark, and there’s perhaps no other medium suited to that than soft charcoal. My study doesn’t really look very much like his work at all, but I enjoyed making it nonetheless.
The Third Floor Corridor 