Woman with a Mother of Pearl Earring

15" x 11" Charcoal on Paper

The weather's getting nicer and I'm thinking more about plein air painting again, but in the mean time, my mind seems more occupied with drawing and painting people from life. Plein air paintings are coming, I promise. For now though, here's a portrait from life I did this week. I didn't want to do another profile of this model, but when I saw her hair up in that funky bun, and that big disk of mother of pearl earring, I picked a profile angle again.

The drawing was made on watercolor paper toned with compressed charcoal. The darks were applied with a charcoal pencil and the lights were done with a kneaded eraser and a "charcoal white" pencil.

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