TENNIS BALL, ERASER WITH CHARCOAL

Since yesterday was a religious holy day, I took the day off from any work. Today I decided to do two pieces to catch up. Working on pastel paper, I used the tennis ball and powdered charcoal. Wow, is that messy!! I decided to work upright rather than flat to avoid a distortion in the image. Today I used a photo taken in Bordeaux of a street musician with wonderful hair and a beautiful face. After working back and forth with the tennis ball and the kneeded eraser, I became impatient with getting more precision so I started using my finger to apply the charcoal and then a paper stump for finer detail. The charcoal is much more maleable than the graphite powder and lifts much easier also. Nicer paper doesn't hurt either! I am much more satisfied with the image than working from my imagination.
The second drawing, I toned the paper all over with the charcoal using the tennis ball, then started lifting out with the eraser. A little back and forth with charcoal, then eraser. No fingers and no stump this time.
The last image is using one of my favorite drawing tools, a Japanese brush pen on top of the last drawing. Tomorrow, tennis ball with ink and paint!