Figures in Charcoal

 

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When drawing portraits, like with still lifes, it helps to identify lights and darks with your charcoal, as well as get your proportion right. This is easiest to do with vine charcoal (due to it's temporary nature).

Once you establish what you feel is the basic building blocks of your piece, you can start to fill in your darks using compressed charcoal. The ways of doing this depend on your comfort level. Some people choose to abandon their vine charcoal and use only compressed from this point on. Others (such as myself [that being Maya]) choose to switch between vine and compressed. I'm heavy handed and indecisive and have learned that when I use only compressed charcoal I end up with a lot of unwanted lines and a value scale that lacks lights and whites.

This is also a point where more details can be added. Though it is up to personal preference on how to do so. Some people choose to focus on one area at a time (such as below with the left eye and nose) while others choose to work on and develop the piece as a whole (such as the first video). Again it all goes down to personal preference and comfort level. Both options have pros and cons.

It helps to create a ground with vine charcoal before going in with your compressed charcoal for dark areas. Just to be sure you're happy with the placement.
 

Continuing the process, using which ever method you prefer, should begin to yield your final (or thereabouts) piece. You should maintain a wide range of values and try to use harsh lines sparingly.

This is a semi completed piece. My blacks are defined with compressed charcoal but I still have enough value created with vine charcoal to give me the option to go back in and work more on some of his features. Portraits are just a matter of working into the piece until you get your desired result.

Value

Value is what gives everything depth and dimension (as opposed to lines which flatten things out). 

Value is a range from highlight (the brightest highlight being white) to shadow (the darkest being black) and all of the tones in between.

Blending- to mix the values using a paper stump, chamois cloth, finger or rag.  This will smooth out the charcoal  or pencil lines and make them almost invisible.

Make sure to use a clean stump when blending the light areas. Stumps can be cleaned with very fine sand paper or a nail file. 

HELPFUL TIP: A dirty blending stump can be useful in applying very light values.

Point Perspectives (1,2,3)

1, 2, and 3 point perspectives are very useful art techniques to give your work the illusion of dimension and space. The "point" being referenced is the "vanishing point". 1 point perspective has only one vanishing point, while 2 point has two, 3 point has three, etc.

The simplest form of perspective is 1 point perspective. Only one vanishing point is applied here--hence the name "One Point Perspective":

 The next level is 2 point perspective. Now there are two vanishing points.

3 point perspective adds a third vanishing point above or below the horizon line. It can be seen as either a birds eye view or a worms eye view. 

 

Notice how dramatic the difference is within the same drawing when it is inverted (changing the position of the 3rd vanishing point from above the horizon line to below).