A three week online, Zoom workshop totalling 9 hours consisting of 3 hrs per session, 10:00-13:00 GMT, Sunday mornings on: 17/11/24, 24/11/24 & 01/12/24, each session is recorded and can be downloaded and replayed after the live event.

This course is suitable for beginners and intermediate level artists who are looking to explore the medium of charcoal. The course will begin with an introduction and exploration of the materials and some experimental “learning tasks” which will be applied later to our main drawing and conclude with a draw-along style practical where we will work through the process of an entire drawing from start to finish using the reference image shown here of Pixie the cat which allows us to practice light, dark and brindle type fur effects.

I am happy to accommodate keen pupils of secondary school age and above.

Course Objectives

· Explore and practice with a range of charcoal materials
· Learn how to use subtractive techniques when using charcoal
· Achieving smooth tonal blends
· Identifying and creating correct tonal values
· Reproducing accurate fur textures

Materials List
· Printer (or access to one) to print out reference images and task sheets
· Drawing paper (I will be working on Snowdon 300gsm cartridge paper)
· Scrap paper and/or glassine paper
· Tracedown paper or access to a lightbox
· An H or HB (or similar) graphite pencil
· Tombow Mono Zero Eraser
· Masking tape
· Willow Charcoal Power & Pot
· Set of soft charcoal brushes (make up brush sets are perfect!)
· Conte Pierre Noire ‘H’ pencil
· Conte Pierre Noire ‘2B’ pencil
· Putty rubber
· Faber Castell PITT compressed charcoal stick ‘medium’ or black pastel
· Blending stumps
· Emery board or sand paper
· White charcoal or pastel pencil
· Pack of medium or thin willow charcoal