Cast Away 2 - Abe Lincoln

It seemed like 4 scores and 7 years ago... but I am finally done with my second charcoal cast of Abraham Lincoln - the 16th president of the United States of America.  During this 145+ hour long study, I became more familiar with using charcoal and its accompanying tools and my eyes began to see a lot more of the complexity of 3D form.  The learning curve is invaluable! And since there were several requests on the making of a charcoal piece, here's sharing highlights of each stage of the journey with you.

The figure is briefly but accurately mapped out on Canson paper.

The final image is traced on a translucent paper, and re-traced back onto Roma Paper.

The background and shadows are first applied evenly using the soft 2B charcoal.

The background is thinned to match the background color of the "wall" of the cast, super dark shadows are added using Rembrandt Pastel (these you cannot remove easily). A general big form modeling is worked in. 

 Moving from shadow shapes to light planes, a mirror is used to help keep the values in check. 

  These are some of my tools I used for the project.

  Here I am in the rendering stage of the cast.

Abraham Lincoln cast, charcoal on Roma paper

65cm x 48cm