Sonna and Drake
 

Here is a charcoal commission that I just completed. It is 24" x 18" on a panel.

And some details:

Hands...always tough.

Beautiful job, Michael!

Could you comment a bit on the materials that comprise your panel and ground? Do you tend to work in a positive fashion, do you "lift" areas of charcoal or both?

How did you handle fixing, framing and/or mattting?

Charcoal is such a wonderful medium, I wish I had more client interest in it.


Congratultions.

Hello Chris,

Thanks for your post.

My panel is 1/4 inch masonite.

I create a "Windberg" style panel - i.e., a panel that has a very fine sandpaper-like texture. I start by sanding the masonite and rolling on 4 coats of professional gesso with marble dust added to it. I then sand the whole thing so it is smooth as ivory with no grain or real texture visible. My last coat is the same gesso, but thinned about 1/3 with polymer medium. I roll it out very evenly and once the surface is covered, I keep rolling it with a soft slightly damp foam roller till the texture is like fine sandpaper. I then use good professional gesso to seal the back and sides.

This makes an excellent surface for charcoal. You can scratch, carve, erase, pull out. I blend with bristle brushes and it just eats them up, but I have not found anything that does a better job, so I keep buying them.

I sometimes tone my ground and work in from the middle, and other times, I work directly on the white and work inward. Both styles create differing looks - the toned ground tends to look more soft and I usually have to use white pastel in those to really pull highlights. This portrait is done straight on white.

I don't fix my charcoals as they are pretty durable once applied to that surface and I find that fixatives can sometimes change the values. I do recommend framing them under glass. This particular piece I will frame for the client, so the actual panel is 3 inches larger all around to accomodate the matts. We are going to give it a double matt of a light cream inside and a dark sage suede matt outside with a fairly rustic natural wood frame.

I find that charcoal is a good entry into portraiture for many people as the cost is in the hundreds instead of the thousands for a portrait. I do a lot of them. And they are great to do at shows as it really draws people in.

Hi Michael!

I totally agree with Chris...wonderful! I'm grateful for the info about your panel preparation, but I still have a few questions. When you mention sanding the panel...how so? Manually or with a sander?

I imagine that larger pieces (such as the size Sharon Knettell uses) would be tiresome to sand by hand. Also, is all of the rolling done with foam rollers?

Finally, where is the best place to get masonite? I tried at our local Home Depot and the guy didn't know what I was talking about. Should I refer to it by another name? Thanks in advance for your reply and time! ...where does the term "Windberg" come from?

Gratefully...

Hello Meredith:

Thanks for your post! :)

Windberg panels are commercially available panels for artists. Windberg panels are known for their "surface tooth". They are getting harder and harder to find and I believe they are no longer making them. So I make my own.

Masonite is at your local Home Depot or Lowes - I prefer Lowes as they seem to have a better selection, and you can sometimes find an actual human to help you.

If you find yourself in the incapable hands of another salesperson who does not know what you are talking about, tell them to take you to the pegboard. Pegboard is Masonite with holes. In that area, there should be sheets of Masonite without the holes and that is what you want. I find mine in bins that also contain birch plywood, regular plywood, and particle board. I buy pieces that are 2' x 4' and the occasional 4' x 4'sheet. They have a saw there and they will be able to cut it for you while you wait.

I sand the surface of the Masonite by hand with very rough sand paper on a block. The idea is to rough up the surface to help create a mechanical bond for the first coat of gesso to cling to, and a finishing sander will make it too smooth for my liking. I really scrub into it.

I sand the gesso with a wet block first and then a finishing sander with 100 grit paper on it to get it smooth. All of the gesso is applied with a foam roller, but I have two - one to apply the gesso and the other to roll out the last coat.

Hope that helps! :)

Hi Michael,

Nice work! Have you ever tried Peggy's sauce? I bet you would be great at it.

Michael, this is wonderful, I love your rendering of the hands.

I hope this was a well-behaved dog! :thumbsup:

Values
 

Michael, you have such a wide range of values in this drawing. Are you able to do that because of the ground or the bristle brushes? Or simply excellent technique? It's very impressive.

Jean