April Live Art Demonstration Review

Artist, Demonstrator: Ian Cox 

Subject: Creating Dynamic Cityscapes.
Medium: Charcoal

 

Ian is a member of Leicestershire Society of Artists and prize winner at their recent exhibition. He has recently run a workshop for us and has been a judge at our exhibition. 
 

Ian enjoys working outdoors and was looking for something that moved him away from paint. Having some compressed charcoal, he had a go at some cityscapes. They were originally meant to be sketches for himself but they have proved popular. He particularly enjoys working with light and shade. It’s BADAS’ fault that Ian moved on to more organic subjects such as trees, as during the workshop he held for us, he was asked if had tried doing more organic drawings rather than his usual subjects.

 

Charcoal pencils are the main tool, of no particular brand. They are about £1.50 each. He prepares and sharpens plenty of them before he starts as they wear down quickly. Quality soft white pastel is hard to get hold of, although he has obtained some. Other tools that he uses are putty rubber and a water spray. 

 

Prior to working, Ian stretches the paper and puts on a layer of gesso, which can give a bit of texture if desired. Fabriano 200gsm cartridge paper is used. To stretch the paper Ian uses a sponge each side of the sheet and then gums it to the board and it flattens out as it dries. 

 

Ian had prepared a loose drawing as a starting point. When not working plein air, Ian will play around with photos, making them into mono, moving figures, increasing the shadow. He started by rubbing willow charcoal over the sheet and blending it so he was not working on a white background. He then used the putty rubber to pick out the highlights. 

 

Ian wetted part of the surface before going in with a charcoal pencil, picking out the dark areas. Using the edge of some compressed charcoal, Ian worked into the darkest shadows. To put highlights back in, Ian used a wet wipe. The surface is re-wetted periodically, as necessary. You get some nice textures with charcoal from the way it moves across the page. 

 

In terms of people, Ian prefers them to be faceless, drawn from behind or in shadow. Rather than leaving a space, Ian gets them in, which will then inform the space around them. The distant parts had a much lighter treatment. The church tower in the background was done using liquid charcoal, which behaves more like watercolour. 

 

Ian told us that the first stage is putting down the black and then he goes in and reintroduces the detail. It does not lend itself to going small. This evening’s drawing, being roughly A3 size, was the smallest he would do. 

 

After the break, Ian moved to a ‘here’s one I did earlier’ at a larger scale but with more detail already added. For the detail a small white pastel can be used. Ian was also trialling a Caran d’Ache soft pastel pencil. Adding highlights gives things a kick. Sometimes Ian would use a Posca pen or acrylic. You just need to add indications, not all detail. Avoid outlining things. 

 

Ian used to go out early in the morning to take photos when shadows are deeper.

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At the end, Ian would fix the work, using proper fixative and sometimes hairspray (the latter being less good for exhibition purposes) but this would be for the white pastel, as the charcoal itself remains quite solid and does not flake off. De Montfort University art shop is open to everyone and tends to be reasonably priced.  

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Each work takes about 3-4 hours. It is good not to get bogged down with detail. He does allow it to dry after the black is added before going in with the white.