Pencil and Charcoal Portrait

Pencil and Charcoal on Smooth Bristol Paper

14"x11"

This whole week has been rather unproductive.I have been painting but not the way I would like to.Threw away a lot of paintings! I feel there has to be a change..not really sure what I am going to do about it.

To my old friends...'Is it strange that my styles change with the medium? I am drawing realistically; and painting loose.Makes me feel weird.Is it wrong? Should I loosen up with pencil or tighten up with color?!

I may be offline for a few days and paint more...find out what is right for me.

Meanwhile, this is a sketch I did of my beloved niece Diya. She is my sister's daughter- a beautiful vivacious girl of 16,  I love her very much!

Another news--NITRAM charcoal featured me in their latest newsletter.I wish I could share the link but I will have to wait till they archive it on their site/blog.

Charcoal Sketch_ Bearded Man

Inspiration struck late at night! I sketched this on toned paper, using white charcoal pencil for highlights- working from 10 pm till 12 pm, just after I posted the flowers.
For ages I have wanted to do this...Not a detailed one, but at least its a start. More to come...hopefully.

Charcoal Portrait on a whim

A Portrait of my son in charcoal...I did this to experiment some more with charcoal.It has been a dull and rainy day outside...so something to cheer myself up!
Usually I use grid  for my pencil portrait but this one was done freehand,without any measurement.
I guess I will be doing more like these, try different paper and see what emerges!
A3 size, willow charcoal on paper