Sargent/Charcoal master copy Qs

[Lev_0]

Anyone know what kind of paper and charcoal Sargent used for his charcoal portraits? I started one on a normal white kind of paper with little/no texture to it, the charcoal doesn't look that great on it when I blend or draw on it. I have vine charcoal but it's hard to get a deep black unless I fix it and use layers, I don't think that's what sargent did.

http://www.hpphoto.com/servlet/LinkPhoto?GUID=122465b4-67e5-5e40-9cd7-602d8d17d0c0&size=

Is the one I'm doing, this one looks a bit more hard than some of his other pieces. I squared it off to render it 2 times bigger, cause it comes on normal sized paper.

[madster]

Have you tried a web search for John Singer Sargent techniques or materials?

Check out a decent art supply company like Dick Blick. They offer different types of charcoals and charcoal papers.

[jhibbs]

i use vine charcoal also, and i find that Rives BFK is great for this if you can get it. It has a good tooth and you can get deep rich blacks with regular vine.

This is vine on bfk:
http://www.geocities.com/jhibbs27/vasek.jpg