At the charcoal face

I've just had a revelation and it's called Charcoal.

Seriously, why have I never used this medium before? I've owned a charcoal pencil for about two years that's just sort of languished alone and unwanted in the pencil box under the waxy lushness of my prismacolors.

I knocked this sketch up in around 10 minutes on a bit of paint-splattered scrap paper. Just thrown together without much planning, but look at the depth of shading I managed to achieve.

I've opened up a vein of possibility. Now I am dashing off to open a pristine page in my sketchbook to concentrate on a 'proper' piece.

I'm taking Jane DesRosier's Gritty Jane class....yes, and the Experimental Art class... and I've also enrolled on 21 Secrets... Well, the latter two are self-paced so I can take my time! Jane's first lessons involved blind contour drawing and charcoal. I'm hooked and will share this with the Sunday Sketchers. Hopefully I'll have time today to complete a more careful study, but there's a wall waiting to be painted (with emulsion!), and a tonne of work admin I've been putting off...

Ah the temptations and distractions of art.... how we love them!

PS: If you have time for an extra read, yesterday I wrote something from the heart - a thank you post to all my supportive friends here in Bloglandia.