# Friesian gelding - charcoal portrait



## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

wow thats fantastic!


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## jadeewood (Feb 18, 2009)

ohh my god, your amazing do you only do commisioned work or do you do pencil drawings on request for free?


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## HorseArtist (Apr 22, 2008)

Thanks!
@jadeewood: I'm afraid I can't spend 20-30 hours on a portrait just 'for fun'... sorry.


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## jadeewood (Feb 18, 2009)

ohh my god, you spend well loads of time on it. lol. Oka thanks anyways.


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## saint3meg3rlfc (May 16, 2009)

Beautiful! I love using charcoal but I can never get my whites looking actually white. Fantastic job


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## HorseArtist (Apr 22, 2008)

Thanks! You have to plan the portrait well and leave the whites white from the start. Not easy I know but the only way to do it (unless you want to 'cheat' with white pastel or paint but I don't think this is necessary).  Works for me!


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## Kayty (Sep 8, 2009)

Absolutely stunning!! I admire anyone who can work like that in charcoal, I've given it a couple of goes with ok results, but it frustrated me too much so I went back to pastel and graphite.


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## HorseArtist (Apr 22, 2008)

What a shame! It is very similar to working with pastels. I love it and as far as contrast & realistic effect are concerned, I would always prefer charcoal to graphite.


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## Kayty (Sep 8, 2009)

You're tempting me to give charcoal another shot you know :S Do you use sticks or do you prefer the pencils? I have some of both around the place and used to find the sticks much more fun to play around with, your not drawing unless you're coated in charcoal/pastel


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## kedar my buba boy (Oct 5, 2009)

omg that is one nice drawing did you do it because if you diod you are an artis


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## HorseArtist (Apr 22, 2008)

Glad you like it!
@kedar: Well if I hadn't drawn this one I wouldn't be showing it in this section and say it's 'mine'...? :wink:
@Kayty: I use sticks for the larger areas but mainly pencils. The 'messy' fun element is one thing but if there's charcoal everywhere you won't be able to present a CLEAN portrait to the person who commissioned you to do it! :lol: So I work VERY carefully and can't afford to be messy. I use 'hard' charcoal pencils for the fine detail and 'medium' and 'soft' ones for the rest. I've also got several brands as they are all different and some are better than others. Glad I could inspire you...have fun!


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## Kayty (Sep 8, 2009)

Oh god they seem so much less forgiving than pastel, I use a hell of a lot of pastel and love it, but because it's all on coloured Canson I can get away with being a bit slack with keeping it smudge free. If I am working on a portrait on lighter paper, then I go all out to keep it clean, so sounds like I'll have to get fussier if I start playing with charcoal!


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