March 2009. Philip Cooper.
Portrait – Charcoal.
Sitter - Ray Teasdale.

First up, a big thank you to our ‘powers that be’ that, we are able to watch our artists at work on our beaut big screen.

Posing the sitter is a fairly exacting process and Philip likes to avoid possible embarrassment of direct eye contact, by having his sitters look at the centre of his forehead. Yet in the process he was busily showing us some of the techniques, telling heaps about the limited array of tools he uses, as well as some of the ways in which he applies them.

Things like:
- Charcoal is better than pencil for portraits.
- Finger-smudging is fine most of the time, but finer detail is better handled with a paper stub and they are so easily sharpened.
- Balsa dipped in ink is another useful maker of marks.
- Fine charcoal sticks make for quick drawing, but they tend to blend/smudge a bit dark and can end up looking rather too stark.
- Use of white chalk in rendering lights and shades.

All set with a fresh sheet of paper Philip gets under way saying “I’ll draw down to the centre folds of Ray’s shirt.’ Then with a knifeedge sharp fine charcoal stick he’s into it, eyes back and forth from Ray to sketch all the time, finger-smudges head detail, still fuzzy, making no definite statement, concentrating mainly on structure and positioning the image.

Philip’s concentration accentuates excellent eye to mind to hand coordination every step of the way, redefining and smudging outlines, gradually revealing more and more of the facial structure.

Tonality is his focus for the moment as he strokes several patches of chalk to forehead, cheeks, nose and upper lip. Then looking, seeing, finger-rubbing, seeing, drawing, seeing, more smudging, more blending, some stubblending/ smudging, more looking / seeing, more white and so it goes, introducing light’n’shade and at the same time, accenting overall depth and form and even the hint of a smile.

Now into the finer details, he lauds even further the supremacy of charcoal over pencil. It’s so much easier to move around, as well as adjust, than pencil and graphite. And if it’s too dark, a razor blade or scalpel easily brings it back. The same can be said about the white chalks too.For the finest of lines Philip uses clutch pencils, both regular like Faber Castell as well as the thicker Koh I Noor, pictured here with both white and coloured sticks.

Alternating between black and white now, Philip fine-lines details of nose, mouth and lips, adjusting constantly, relative tonalities, thereby bring even greater depth to the face; his finest fine-liner clutch pencil enhancing Ray’s smile even more.

Sighting often across his fingers, ever on the lookout for anomalies, making necessary adjustments, a stroke here, pushing it around, fingering, blending etc, and already the likeness of Ray is emerging albeit in need of eye detail. At this stage, he’s detailing hair and ear details and concentrating more on the nuances of tone, shadow, light and seeking what he referred to as ‘living edges’ in order to end up with acceptable perspective and facial realism. At any rate, by this time I feel that Philip’s reached that point.

Getting close now, he’s fine-tuning the hair; mind you, not each and every hair though, but rather more tonally and to great effect too.

Then to those eyes. “It’s important that the drawing looks out at you – a feeling of communication between drawing and character,” says Philip. A few adjustments later, plus a few dashes of white in the background and he says ”that’s it, ” then signs it. Ahhhh … if only I could do that.

Nice work Philip.

- Neal Hicking