Portrait Drawing Following Anders Zorn

Zorn Study in Charcoal and Panpastel

DARK VALUES MADE EASY

Imagine the hassle of trying to draw all this in pencil. Perhaps you'd start with a 2H, slowly building up hatched line after hatched line, before trying a 2B, and then something further. Potentially hours of mind numbing boredom (unless you enjoy this sort of thing of course), and then for all your efforts you will be left with a shiny graphite sheen.
I didn't time myself, but I would say the entire jacket was done in about six minutes. I added one further layer using the vine charcoal, blended quickly with a tissue, and then proceeded with a layer from the panpastel and sponge tool. This created a very dark tone but left the opportunity to add one last layer to mark shadows in the jacket by matching the darkness of the hair.

FINISHING

The only parts of the original paper showing are on the shirt, a spotlight on the forehead and a couple of shiny parts on the nose where the cartilage pushes close to the skin. There's a few minor adjustments to values and edges, but there's a real danger of overworking areas, so I try not to tamper too much. No doubt if I look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow there will be half a dozen changes I'd like to make but for now I'm signing off on it.
If you've made it to the end, I am a little verbose. Thanks for sticking through until the end, and I hope it's proved useful to somebody out there.

Blown up crop of the face

The study is available for purchase on the website HERE.

	CHARCOAL ART LESSONS
	CHARCOAL ART Nietzsche	CHARCOAL Landscape	CHARCOAL LESSONS Charcoal Portrait
	PENCIL LESSONS Grass	CHARCOAL Plein Aire	CHARCOAL ART Puma Portrait