The other night in my deepest slumber, I must have been dreaming about our wonderful rhino who are in desperate need of intervention by us from the incensed poachers and users of rhino horn. Seen we had just celebrated World Rhino Day, I thought it might have been the reason that these shy, prehistoric looking beasts were playing on my mind. I made a concious effort to hold onto my vision so that I could portray the idea on paper the next morning.
I did something out of the ordinary and rummaged around for a box of willow charcoals I have had around for about 40 odd years. I think the last time I picked up a piece of charcoal was 38 years ago but I knew I had to use with them for my idea. A few weeks ago I attended a fantastic demo on 'Using Blacks" with South African artist Meriel May in which she showed us various mediums using only black. One demo was with charcoals which I thoroughly enjoyed and thought I'd try my hand at my rhino subjects with this medium.
I am still a bit rusty at this, but was so please when my rhino came to life on my paper. I need to play and experiment a little more with texture, but all in all, I think these are pretty neat for someone who hasn't held a piece of charcoal in all these years. I'd also like to try and mix this medium with watercolour and see what effects I achieve. But for now I'd like to just sit and admire this work for a while and think of how I can make it more appealing!
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| First attempt, without a preliminary sketch of a rather long rhino |
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| No pre-sketch, just straight in with the charcoal. |
Bye for now,I'm off to sketch another animal......!
