Caravaggio in charcoal
 

18.5 x 24 violet art spectrum, sanded pastel paper. This is a charcoal study of John the Baptist by Caravaggio. I'm still working on the values and plan on finishing it in pastels, or do you think I had better leave it as a charcoal drawing?

Dear Bobby,

I am awe struck!!!

geri

Hi Bobby,

You have done a terrific job. I recommend leaving this as a charcoal, simply because you have a tremendous amount of dark values, and even with fixative, I think that it will be impossible to get clean pastel color on top. The gentle tooth of the Art Spectrum paper will also tend to aggravate the "dirtying" of color applied over the top.

Chris

P.S. The Art Spectrum paper's texture, I must say, is JUST like human skin ,once you have laid the pastel on it. Try it with straight color instead of charcoal!

Thank's for the reply Geri and for being such a good friend and inspiring artist. Thank's Chris, I can already tell I'm going to be using this art spectrum paper alot from now on. It has a very nice texture and worked very well using charcoal. For $6 a sheet i dont think you can beat it. Now im off to do another in pastels only. Thanks again.