Charcoal Figure Drawing Damaged

Cari Amici,
I had taken my disegno di carboncino (charcoal drawing) home from the studio these past two weekends to try to improve my tonal quality and work on the background of the figure drawing. On the 9th of March, I had a small accident and my drawing fell off of my easel. As I tried to catch it, my sleeve collided in the most unattractive and slightly random ways with the paper. I include an image here so that you can see how many steps back I took.

I seem to be having a problem getting the darks to stay on this Umbria paper. But then, I do not feel that I have created enough disegni di carboncino to be quick or perhaps have developed a better technique. And so, I continue to learn . . .

The second image of my drawing of the beautiful Valentina was taken on the 21 of March, my last day of working with this model. Now the drawing is safely in my flat. I want to add more narrative to this work, but this is really a new skill for me, so it may take me some time. Now that I have a photo of the near finished work, I will play in Photoshop to arrange shapes and decide which composition ideas will look the best. That way, I can minimize any problems with the carta by too much charcoal or too much erasure.

This morning, I went to the grocery store Standa to buy last minute food items for the lunch I am hosting tomorrow for Pasqua (Easter). I love these giant chocolate eggs wrapped in bright and glossy papers, but I cannot afford them right now. However, I love it that dolci is displayed right next to the Italian wines. I usually do not think that sugar and alcohol should be imbibed together, ma I like the idea of life’s little decadences.

And I ran into my friend Alessandro while in Standa. He is the partner of my friend Susanna; both are fiorentini and wonderfully kind people. I have always been partial to smaller communities and feeling that I know the people that live around me, so it is always a treat for me to hear my name while I am out and about. Buona Pasqua. A domani!