2nd entry for Jan 17, 2012

These are three 20-minute studies of C-   , and a 15-minute one at the bottom. All are on sheets of 90 lb Maidstone paper.
The top two are on 11 x 22" half-sheets, while the lower two are on 22 x 30" sheets.
The top one is done with soft graphite, and the one below with hard compressed charcoal. both half-sheets are very lightly toned with charcoal powder. The smaller surface area made me inclined to try more close croppings of the figure.
The third one is just hard compressed charcoal, and the lowest one is the same charcoal with a more pronounced charcoal underlayer.
At this point it has been striking me what a difference a very small amount of surface tone makes to the character of the drawing. Even a small dusting away from white really registers as a markedly darker final image.