As in, I got myself a new drawing board. But perhaps I should back up to what lead me to get one in the first place.

Sometimes I go to the art store looking for something in particular. Most of the time I find it. Usually I waste a bit of time by wandering through every single aisle. Occasionally I pick up something that is totally not on my list. One particular day that happened to be some charcoal sticks. I hadn’t drawn with charcoal since my grade 9 art classes, so I grabbed a pack each of black and white.

Those sticks sat around a few weeks in a bag on my desk, waiting for a project. I finally took some time to sit down with them, a pastel paper pad, and a CD cover I’m not going to name because it came out way wrong. This is what came of that:

Pastel textured paper seems a bit too texturized for the charcoal. So I went back and picked up a small pad of actual charcoal paper which worked much better. I also picked up a drawing board so i can angle the paper and not have to worry about it bending. I’ve never been very good at drawing flat. Just look at the original picture for proof. Using a different picture in the album cover, I redeemed myself slightly with this picture:

I think I need a wee bit more practice. Bonus points to anyone who can figure out who these terrible portraits are supposed to be.