What started as a sketch recently in a sketchbook became something a little more ambitious. This is using charcoal and some Carbothello pencil. The sketch paper turned out not to be the best for the charcoal rendering, seems a little blotchy in places, but overall I think it turned out OK.
I realize I avoided charcoal for so many years because of the messiness but I am getting to like it. Just need to find the right paper.
I have been studying for the last few months under one of my favorite figurative artists, Steve Huston, going through his Draws From life course. The improvements I am seeing are incremental but steady. I am starting to see and understand structure and gesture in a way that I hope will help me to produce beautiful art sometime in the future. I might have a day left or thirty years, but I intend to make the best of it. Here are a couple more recent sketch pages:
