Drawing Beth of Los Flamencos

Last night we had Beth of Los Flamencos pose for us. I decided to go with charcoal which was something that I had not done in a while. This was to be a long pose, but to begin with we did two 5 minute poses. I took the opportunity to do some digital sketches.

My brush settings in Brushes 3 look a little different her as I asked my friend Michael Anderson what his recommendations, or favorite settings for brushes were. Michael is very good wit the digital mediums. Below is a screenshot of those settings. I will play with these and see how they work for me. I think it is a good setting that seems to mimic an actual brush well. Michael uses the Sensui Brush, so together they probably work quite well. I on the other hand tend to just use my fingers.

Here is a quote and a screenshot thanks to Michael:

"Would it kill Brushes 3 to give them names btw? I adjust the menus & size it to give it the painterly brush effect. Pushing the Jitter & Scatter sliders a bit farther will create a random paint drops which are cool too! Specific settings in attached screen shot."

And lastly, my return to charcoal after a long neglect of the medium is below. I have a bad habit of wanting to fill in the background completely. In this case it might have been better to take the approach of focusing on the form and grounding it lastly with little hints of the background. These are things that are learned after using different tools for some time. How then might it also effect my approach in the digital realm? Do I also focus too soon on background in an attempt to fill the space? It's something to be conscious of.