Entry for Nov 1, 2011

On the Tuesday, H-  was over at Artists 25.  These are, from the top, a 3-minute, a 5-minute and a 10-minute study.  Below that are two 20-minute ones.
The upper 3 are done with U-Art hard compressed charcoal on 18 x 24 sheets of bond paper. The lower two are the same charcoal on 21 x 29" sheets cut from a roll of Strathmore drawing paper. I still like the larger size, but am not quite enamoured of the grain of the Strathmore paper, which is a little pebbly for my taste. The lowest one had a layer of willow charcoal worked in initially, but it didn't want to move much from where it was applied (on a smoother paper it would tbe easier to spread more evenly as a subtle underlayer, to help `fill in' the grain.)