“The allure of Charcoal is its unforgiving nature.” -RLM

Charcoal is without doubt the fundamental tool of all artists, for it is one of the most expressive mediums. Additionally, Ink work and Pastels can be just as unforgiving and incredible hard to master. I personal relish the use of charcoal or conte pencils, which are round wood-cased pencils that create rich colors excellent for landscapes and portraits. They can be sharpened with an X-Acto blade, razor, or knife. It has been suggested that these pencils where the personal choice of Van Gogh, now if that is true…that would be exciting!  When I use Charcoal, I seem to work myself up into a frenzied state, and though I follow proportions and shading, these guidelines are not my foremost goals. No, I grip firmly and cast off my inhibitions and let my artistic madness run wild, and that is why, on occasion, my art has been labeled heavy handed. But to me that is only a compliment, for I create artwork that I am proud of and which I feel reflects the impressions I have subconsciously developed over my lifetime. Therefore, I will heavy hand away until the day I die!
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New Charcoals: a three set series on Syria.
Creative Commons License
This work by R. Louis Mulvihill is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.