Sunday September 27. Charcoal study of sunflower and a free doodle.

The last blog was of photos of sunflowers. I took one of the monochrome images and started a charcoal sketch. A2 size.

I worked quickly with the side of the charcoal piece as well as the point. A rubber was used to pick out highlights.

Given that the drawing was out of control, I used a tissue to blur many areas of the picture. This produces more ambiguity and a ground on which to apply further drawing.

Then I worked quickly to increase the drama of the image with heavy dark lines and bold strokes with a rubber. I think this should stay like this. It would be a mistake to try and increase the realism by being more careful.

Whilst reclining in front of the TV a week or so ago I started an open ended doodle with an HB pencil starting with random scribbles. On an A3 pad. When I realised that there were similarities with Gericault's Raft of the Medusa I decided to go with it. Why not.

Being a fan of Gericault's sketches for his masterpiece, I decided to develop the image with brown conte crayon.

This was followed up with a rubber and a white conte crayon. A bit more detail added. I am tempted to update the image with images of floating rubbish or even refugees, but I think it should stay more open-ended