I have a love-hate relationship with charcoal. I absolutely love the rich, dark values it creates, but I absolutely despise the mess. Nevertheless, for 4 semesters straight, I was enrolled in drawing courses that focused on the use of charcoal. So, for this week’s throwback Thursday, I am presenting my charcoal drawing from 2013 titled “Horsepower.”
This was a project for Drawing III that was basically a Master Study with a twist. We were assigned to pick an established painter from a list and find a work to replicate in charcoal. The twist was that we had to incorporate something from the modern era into the work. I’ll be honest, I can’t remember for the life of me who the artist was that I picked or the name of the painting. That being said, it was simply an oil painting of a white horse standing in front of a brick wall.
I like clever things and have always enjoyed the organic-hybrid machinery of H.R. Giger’s artwork. Because of this influence, I devised a plan to meld the horse structure with mechanical components found in modern day transportation. The horse received headlights for eyes, a motorcycle engine for organs, an old-school gas cap, and tubing throughout.
This piece kind of marked the beginning of the end for my time in fine art. I was mentoring a bit with an older gentleman who had worked in the design industry and was returning to school for the joy of it. We became close friends over the course of 2 years, but in October of 2013, he lost his battle with lung cancer and passed away. It was really difficult for me to return to drawing afterward. While I did eventually recover and work on other charcoal pieces, a lot of the passion had faded and I never finished another charcoal piece of this magnitude (the paper it was drawn on measured 40” x 30”).
That being said, when I was introduced to ink as a medium a few months later, the creative fire returned and I found a new, modified voice for my artwork. While I don’t think my time with fine art is through, I know that my period working with charcoal has certainly passed. This period of time in my creative life really helped me develop an appreciation of drawing and, to this day, I love seeing the work other charcoal artists produce.
Until next time!
I love feedback, so if you have any questions, ideas, or requests, make sure to leave a comment below. And, if you need more fun stuff to shove into your eyeballs, hop over and check out my YouTube channel, Chimp Skipper, or my online portfolio.
#art #drawing #animals #traditional #charcoal #horse #fineart #HRGiger
Really nice work ! :-) i love your line hatching ,
Thank you! My drawing instructor encouraged us to throw out any and all blending tools early on. As a result, I became very fond of not hiding my hatching :D
This is soooo awesome! I love the design. What a great idea!! I do a lot of pictures of cyborgs. It never occured to me make an animal with robotic parts. You have inspired me to try something new. Lovely art!!! :)
Yeeees! We need more cybernetic animal art!! Like if H.R. Giger were obsessed with wildlife... An less perverted :P
I actually started a second piece called "Jacked Rabbit" after this one, by my mentor passed away while I was working on it and I never finished it :(. That being said, I had a friend that forced me to give her the incomplete work so I wouldn't throw it away, so maybe someone can finish it some day :)
Thank you for your kind words and support :D
Wow! It's really in details.
Thank you! It was a large drawing, so it was fun to get in and really render and lot of nooks and crannies.
I fell in love with your project, the texture of the charcoal and the way he looks on the canvas, always produce a fascinating result... great post! Upvoted!!
Thank you so much! I happy to see that others like it, too :)
Great artwork! I like it very much and follow you to see more
Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear when others like my work. Your work is very beautiful as well, so I will be following back. Thank you again!