Oriane Pierrepoint: 14th March 2025

Portrait in Charcoal

Working from two black & white photographs of her chosen subject and a pre-drawn outline in charcoal, which had been pre-sprayed with thin layer of fixative on A2 textured cartridge paper, Oriane explained she does not use the grid method when creating portraits, preferring to measure by eye with her pencil to check where everything aligns on the face.

Using a long thin stick of willow charcoal she makes herself, Oriane’s first step in this demo was to block out the all the white of the face, then wiped over with a piece of tissue. With a putty rubber she removed an area of charcoal from the nose to create a highlight before drawing in the lines of shadow and filling in their shapes. Wiping a finger on a scrap of paper to remove any oil, she blended in these areas, to create the tonal elements of the portrait before adding any details, explaining it does not matter if the charcoal is too dark as it can be easily made lighter by removing.

Focussing on the eyes, as these set the tone for whole portrait, she drew and redrew as necessary to achieve the correct tonal image, emphasising one doesn’t have to stick to the outline drawing; things can alter as one works on the image. Because charcoal is messy to work with, she uses one finger for blending, keeping another clean for removing the medium. Time was spend creating the eyebrows as these are also important and expressive, squinting frequently at the drawing to focus in on the tones. explaining how the texture of the paper can help enhance skin texture, In a short space of time the portrait came to life purely with the tones and shadow that Oriane had put in.

Working on the lighter side of the face, Oriane blocked in the whole eye to the cheek, tapping and blending to create the hollowed out eye socket, blocking out the entire nose before putting back the highlighted area with the putty eraser, explaining it is almost impossible to overwork a picture using charcoal. Progessing to add the tone for hair and forehead, buffing out where bits needed lightening without aiming for a photorealistic image; her mantra is to enjoy the journey of creating.

Wrinkles were added without over-exagerating the lines, keeping everything soft and the darker shaded area of the chin, neck and shirt. Charcoal is not a quick medium to work with and two hours is not long enough to complete a whole portrait but in the time we had, although unfinished, an excellent portrait was produced.

Oriane was entertaining to listen to, gave lots of tips and hints as she worked, and a very personable and approachable lady with a great deal of talent. Everyone in the 50+ strong audience enjoyed the afternoon and we hope to invite her back in the future, perhaps with a view to running a portraiture workshop.

You can find out more about Oriane’s work at:
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