I had a great evening last night as the guest of Cowbridge Art Society.  I was asked to give a demonstration in charcoal and chose as my subject the Beautiful Welsh Cob stallion, Caemansel Elwyn.  As I only had two hours in which to demonstrate, I prepared before-hand by drawing out my composition in outline and roughly placing the main shadow shapes.  

 By coffee break on the evening, we had reached this stage...

By the end of our time together, we had managed to deepen the darks, heighten the lights with white charcoal, bring more definition to the mid-tones and put in an atmospheric background with vine charcoal.

I will continue to work on the piece to further refine it, but it shows what a wonderfully versatile medium charcoal is, and what can be achieved in the space of a few hours.

I wish to say a big thank you to Cowbridge Art Society for their hospitality.