Autumn. The season of mists, mellow fruitfulness and the start of Julia Ogden’s drawing classes with Enjoy Learning. Today was the first one and off I went with my fine liners, 6B pencil, graphite pencil and pastels. In fact the only things I forgot were my charcoal sticks and putty rubber. Guess what we used today! Correct! Charcoal and putty rubber!
Our drawings were based on black and white photos of trees using paper masks to give sharp edges. This is the photo I used:
Here is the sequence as I drew my wood:
This is my final piece. The original photo was much darker; this is a bit more delicate and misty. I commented to Julia that I bet the path was on the golden mean. At home I checked with my Phimatrix programme and yes, I was right.
Julia had done a Blue Peter and had a drawing that she had done earlier. I said I thought the darkest tree was on the golden mean. I was …. nearly right!
notes to the milkman 
‘Not the most exciting drawing subjects for BnW, but the process is interesting. How did you create the sun’s rays? And, did someone lend you spare tools (since you forgot yours)?
Julia seems like a lovely teacher:D
I drew the distant parts of the wood and then used a putty rubber for the sun rays. I then drew the nearer trees. Yes, I was able to borrow charcoal and use of the putty rubber from other members of the group.
Did you have to use one of those straight-edge paper or card stock techniques to rub/erase the rays straight, or did you freehand them?
I used paper edges for the trees but the rays were erased freehand.
Never used paper stencils with charcoal, good idea! The golden section seems to be programmed into the human perception.
It’s a technique I’ve used several times. One of my favourite drawings I made a few years ago was of a Christmas tree bauble using a simple circle shaded with powdered charcoal with masking tape cut for the white lights.