Charcoal Studies

 

Its my first time sketching nudes so be nice!. I bought a collection of nude photographs by Taschen. Its a fascinating insight on what was considered artistic or offensive from the mid nineteenth century to the late thirties. I used the photographs as a guiding tool for my sketches (plus it doesnt get the neighbours gossiping) Charcoal is so versatile and easy to use despite all the dust. I always avoided it because I didnt think it worked well for adding details and clean lines. But there are so many charcoal pencils to choose from and a variety of simple techniques, that you can create much more than simply a big dusty black mess.
I did these sketches within about 45 minutes. They arent perfect by all means, but I wanted to post them to declare my newfound friendship for the humble charcoal :)