The Art League in Alexandria and Another Drawing of My Daughter

Before I begin about the drawing posted below, I just want to say that I am so delighted and thankful that the drawing I posted of my daughter previously this month, (Before the Breakthrough) won an honorable mention at the Art League Gallery in Alexandria (their juried exhibition for July). We weren't able to attend the awards ceremony because we were away at the beach but last weekend, my daughter and a friend of hers from college went up with me to see it on display. Had to take a pic of her beside it! This is it's last week on display.

The drawing below is another one of my daughter that I did with pencil and charcoal. The hat was given to her by a sweet family that took her to an equestrian event some time ago. Many of the ladies wore fancy hats like they do at the Derby or Ascot. Needless to say, I was thrilled by the look of it and will probably do a few more drawings featuring this charming hat! I had a lot of fun rendering the face in subtle shadow though transition of values in some areas of the face are not quite right. I think I will need to work on it a little more before I enter it into a juried show. Also in the works is a drawing that I am doing of my son. I am very excited about how the values are coming and will post a series of pics on the progression of his portrait soon. As always thanks for looking :)

"Thinking Hat" 14 x 18 inches, pencil and charcoal on toned paper
© Christine Angelotta Dixon

Working W/ Graphite

"Young Bowman" 22 x 28 inches, graphite

I am really enjoying working with different shades of graphite and recently have bought some graphite powder to try some interesting affects! Will show you more works using that medium. In the meantime I have posted a recent drawing here using only pencils. I used 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, 8B and black negro pencil which really was the best enhancement to the darker areas. Sometimes when working with charcoal or graphite, it is good to "tone" the background or purchase paper that is already toned so that highlights and shadows are more enhanced (creates more depth). For this drawing I decided to just use textured white paper and the result is more of  "high-key" work of art.