Charcoal Demo

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Anya. Compressed charcoal on rives paper.



1) Construction drawing. Being careful here allows for a confident stroke when I start using the compressed charcoal stick.


2) Establishing landmarks so as to not loose the drawing as the charcoal gets pushed around in later stages.


3) Value block in.


4) Smoothing values and touching up the drawing with the corner of the charcoal stick.


Wow, what a mess. This is one of the reasons I don't specifically encourage my technique. There are dozens of ways you can apply the medium. It's the principles of value (light and shadow), structure, edges and composition that really matter.


5) Final touch up with a kneaded eraser and charcoal stick.

PROJECT DAEDALUS, 1994

This is a project I did back when I was at Art Center College of Design in the early nineties. After foundational courses in drawing and painting I wanted to focus on entertainment design with an eye toward science fiction. So for my 6th term elective I chose to illustrate "Project Daedalus", a scientifically possible mission to a nearby star as proposed by the British Interplanetary Society. This was before photoshop, maya or terragen. My efforts were more than modest and primitve compared to the extraordinary work being done now but I enjoyed doing it. Here are the bits and pieces of it that I still have.

Presentation at Art Center College of Design:








The design pages were made in adobe illustrator and the illustrations are in gouache and marker.
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Compressed charcoal on Rives lithograph paper.
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A scene painted for The Road to El Dorado back in '98. Acrylic with a little photoshop work.
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Charcoal on Canson paper.
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Some images from The Prince of Egypt this week:


Final frame from the film.


Painted background columns.




Color key painting:


The Backgrounds were painted in sections so they cold be reused in other scenes. The columns were difficult to paint and they seemed never ending; if we'd had photoshop back then they would have taken a fraction of the time. But I am glad to have learned the discipline with acrylics, I liked the all or none nature of the medium. You had to nail it on the first pass (though you could touch up with some glazing). Each column was masked off with tape and painted wet on wet with no air brushing.

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Watercolor on Arches cold pressed watercolor paper.
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Charcoal and nupastel on strathmore paper.
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Here's a followup from last week's post. After the location was approved, I did these color keys as story moments and for character lighting. Character drawings were provided by animation.
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These are color keys for the animated film Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas. They're meant to establish the color and lighting in the Hall of Justice location.
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White Bird, watercolor on hot press illustration board.
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Compressed charcoal on strathmore charcoal paper.
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This is watercolor with a little gouache thrown in on arches cold press paper. I used masking fluid to preserve the white of the paper in the lights.
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Jenny, charcoal pencil on velour pastel paper.
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Watercolor on Arches paper.
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Back to the good ol' days for this week's post. These are from The Prince of Egypt.

Color key and background painting.

Final scene as it appears in the film. Copyright DreamWorks Animation.
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Great Blue Heron. Watercolor on Crescent cold press illustration board.
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Adrienne. Charcoal on Rives paper.
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Still having a good time with ink. This is done with Higgins water-soluble ink on watercolor paper.
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I'm really enjoying the simplicity of sketching with a Pentel water soluble brush pen and a waterbrush. More at Land sketch.
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