first I tried rabbits ,now chicks. I found the chicks easier

Hi Stan, I have a question about pencil grip. Should my hand be touching the paper with the tripod grip or should it just hover? I'm finding when I rest my hand on the paper it is very easy to control, but my work gets smudgy and messy; my hands get all dirty. Sometimes it'll even get on my face when I wipe my brow. lol. However, when I hover, control is much more difficult for me. I thought I'd try learning to not touch my paper to make the transition to brushes down the road easier, but I'm not sure if this is the best approach. Side note... Sometimes I use a maul stick but am wondering if it's going to become a crutch. What are your thoughts on this? Thanks.

Hi guys, This is a digital materials related post. Since starting the course, I have been experimenting with the default charcoal brush set on Procreate. I have a few charcoal pencils at home, but for the sake of portability, convenience, and lack of a mess (along with a one year old baby), I found this to be the most appealing medium for now. This piece was done entirely with the 2B and 4B compressed charcoal brushes and an eraser. The lay-in/ preliminary sketch was done with the 2B compressed on roughly 50% opacity and 5-10% size, to keep the lines nice and light. Once the features were established, I realized the face was too wide so I erased it down and redrew it. Same for the mouth, which was initially placed a little low. This is something I’m always struggling with. From there I switched to the 4B brush for the rest of the piece. This was at 100% opacity and varied in size between 2-10%. Values were controlled with applied pressure with the Apple Pencil, just like an actual pencil. Generally I tried to work for large to small. And tried to simplify at first (which is also something I struggle with greatly). I started by blocking in the shadow family of the face. Then half tones and progressively refining from there. I then framed his face with a large blocked in dark area for the hair. There were several tweaks needed to get his face shape corrected. The hair was blocked in with solid medium/dark value and I then found the next biggest, darker, general shapes, progressing to medium and smaller sizes. Then it was really all eraser from there. I used a standard round brush eraser at 25% opacity. I find that this gives me the most simulated feel to an actual eraser and I can control it with my hand pressure. Same idea as before, just inverted. I found larger to medium light areas, then progressively added lighter forms and highlights. I just wanted to share. I love seeing all the various posts and mediums used and am very excited to start working on whatever assignments come next. It’s such an awesome community and I’m looking forward to learning and growing with everyone.

What are some GOOD charcoal brands? I used to love charcoal in high school and would like to try some.

Question... What are the best ways/sharpeners for sharpening the eraser pencil? I have never owned an eraser pencil before and usually use a reed knife for pencils. Thanks.

when will the course start ?