Char-char-char (coal) Girl - Finished!

Heya!

What a week in my house. Everyone sick. Need I say more?

After four days flat on my back in bed with a horrible cold, I was able to finally recover enough energy to go to art class last night with Ms Kathy. Can I just say it felt sooooo good to be outside the confines of my now messy house. I'm not sure if you ever feel this way after a couple of days of being ill, but I really felt like I needed a bit of time away from focusing on myself feeling sick and redirect my thoughts towards something else far more productive. Yes, it has to be said, I got sick of myself! Literally and figuratively.

I must also confess I was desperate to finish my charcoal girl portrait I started last week. It feels like she's been taunting me this past seven days every time I thought about her ("Will I work, or will I become yet another one of your fabled flop artworks, Kate? I wonder, oh, HOW I wonder..."). I tell you, she may well only exist on paper, but she sure still is a cheeky thing.

After an hour and a half of concentrated effort using willow and compressed charcoal, along with a couple of white chalk highlights, this is what I ended up with:

"Her name was Lola, she was a char-girl..."

Overall, I'm really pleased with this artwork. Particularly considering it's been ages since I've used this medium.  The funny thing that happened when I took her home was that hubby was totally unprepared for charcoal girl to be quite so big. She's actually poster size in real life!  He thought she was going to be a cute A4 sized painting. To give you an idea of exactly how big she is, here's another shot of char-girl to give you an idea of scale:

I know, you are *so* impressed with the classy way I stuck a pen onto some putty rubber to give you an idea of scale, aren't you? I know, sophisticated, that's me.

The worst thing about this is that I now want to do another one, and I'm not sure where I'll find the time this weekend! Oh well, if that is the biggest of my worries, I figure everything is pretty sweet.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope everything is well and healthy in your life. I'll see you 'round soon,

Kate
x

Char-char-char (coal) Girl - Part 1

Do you ever feel like trying something different? Bust a few moves and shake things up a little from your boring regular routine? I did at art class last night. I mean, I love my pastels, but a girl like me has to try something different from time to time.

Not feeling sure of what to create, I asked my fabulous teacher, the incredibly talented Ms Kathy, what she thought would be fun for me to try.  Ms Kathy thought about it a moment (she's very clever, on minute is all it takes for her to come up with something inspiring. Me, I would have been stumped for hours!). She then suggested I use charcoal and create a giant portrait. Ms Kathy then magically produced a large A2 sized piece of paper and handed me a box of compressed charcoal and burnt willow sticks (or whatever they're called) and told me to start. I didn't need to be told twice and feverishly set to work.

I worked on char-char-char (coal) girl for an hour and a half and got as far as starting on her freckles, but not as far as working on her hair. Ms Kathy told me she was loving my "boldness" with this work. Bold? Who Me? Never! ;-)

Here she is so far...

Not bad. Plenty of scope to turn her into a masterpiece. Or a disaster.

It will be interesting to see what happens with her in art class next week (I asked Ms Kathy to look after her for me while I was still working on her as I feared she'd get smudged or scrunched at my house.)

Cross your fingers for me that she works out OK. Have a great weekend, I'll see you around soon!

Kate
x