Carolyn

This was done from a photo i'd had taken of Carolyn. I wanted it to have a "sketchy" feel to it, I am keen to develop my own style as I am not looking to produce an exact black and white copy, because I dont see the point when I already have one!
Previous drawings I have done in graphite have frustrated me in that the deep shadows end up being shiny. After some research I found out why....

The individual granules of charcoal have an irregular shape. When light strikes a drawing containing these particles, it bounces back in many different directions. That means when it is pushed to its darkest value, charcoal doesn't have the reflective glare that is common with graphite. Usually the darkest values in a drawing are shadows, and, if you are trying to render a subject as realistically as possible, the last thing you want is a shadow that reflects more light than the subject. I use both charcoal and graphite pencil in different areas of my drawings.http://www.jdhillberry.com/how_to_draw_pg2.htm

So armed with a charcoal pencil I was able to get the shadow how I wanted it. I have ordered some carbon pencils aswell which are said to give a smooth rich finish with no shine!