Friday, November 28, 2008

Charcoal pencil portrait - my lovely husband

I was going through photos the other night when I was trying to find a decent photos of both kids together for the annual calendar that daycare organises, which is a pretty hard task - I have lots of great individual shots but very few with both of them. I came across a photo of my lovely husband holding our daughter and I thought, I want to draw that picture of him. So yesterday I did and the result is above. This is charcoal pencil on A4 Arches Smooth and I am heaps happier with this one compared to the last one I did.

I managed to do this when the kids were up and about and set my son up with his own drawing board, some paper and a pencil and a copy of this photo of Daddy so that he could draw Daddy too. I would post his two year version however last night his one year old sister tore it to bits when she wasn't too happy with her brother after she decided WWF-style wrestling isn't that much fun after a while (and as I write this now they are practicing wrestling moves on each other on the lounge floor).

My husband asked me when he saw this, if he really does have that many wrinkles. Well he was looking into the sun at the time with his head turned and he is a builder who works outside. And then for his hobby and his passion he is out on the boat with wakeboarding so he does look like he spends quite a bit of time outside but I love each and every wrinkle and I think they give him character. And I do really like drawing his face, it is a change from the smoothness of baby and toddler faces. So I am pretty happy with this one although can anyone give me a hint on how to sharpen charcoal pencils? I've tried different types of sharpeners and the lead seems to break so easily and I can't get a sharp point. If anyone reading this does know, please leave me a comment, I will be very grateful.

3 comments:

Sandra T said...

The only way (in my opinion) to sharpen any pencil is with a stanley knife ... always keep a sharp blade. I think it is an art in itself!

Fabulous drawing - loads of personality, great angle, and he really does look like he's in the sunlight.

Unknown said...

I agree with Sandra, all I used to do is pencil drawings (b4 i got into painting) and a Stanley knife is best. I'd tried every kind of sharpener even buying one of those ones with the winding Handel...they just eat your pencils!

Melissa Muirhead said...

Thanks for that Sandra and Ronda. I will try the Stanley knife. I have a sharpener with the winding handle and find that great for coloured pencils as you get a really sharp tip but the charcoal pencil broke and jammed it everytime I tried so next drawing I will be trying the trusty knife.