I started this sketch with the idea of practicing to draw another skull. I found a painting by Gerhard Richter with a skull. And what is nicer than painting just skull? Painting a skull with a candle.
I have seen around here some real nice and smooth value transitions. Probably it is my technique, but I feel I am getting stuck a bit. I recently bought Giaconda white coal in four gradations of hardness and realize I don’t know what hardness is best to use and how to utilize it properly to get those real nice transitions for the background.
Update:
As an experiment I used the softest and just started, eh, smudging…something a former teacher of mine would frown upon…Still, it looks smoother, but not yet where I would like to get it…