Portrait of 'Alde'

[Josef Sy]

Jim, very well executed. Excellent cross hatching! I should try that sometime.

[Patricia Joyce]

Jimmie,
This is an exciting drawing. So much energy. I guess I'm gonna have to get out my charcoal pencils!!! Can you tell me what you found easier and what seemed more difficult as opposed to working in graphite? Isn't it hard to keep a good sharp point? Do you sharpen your charcoal pencils with sandpaper?

[Jimmie Arroyo]

Thank you Joseph and Patricia,

Can you tell me what you found easier and what seemed more difficult as opposed to working in graphite

Everything! When I start a graphite piece, I assume it will be successful. This is only the second one in charcoal that I would consider good after many failed attempts, so I don't think I'm qualified to answer that question yet. The hatching just came to me because I thought I was going to scrap this piece, and decided to play around with it to see if I would be able to learn something for the next one. It was pure luck that I ended up liking it.

I did'nt keep them to a sharp point. I used the sandpaper, but did not like the look of the lines, so I put the pencils in a sharpener just enough to give me a dull point and not have it break off in the sharpener.

Thanks again.