During lockdown last year, one of the charcoal drawings I did was this bobcat skull.
It's about 20x18 inches and a lot of fun to create. It was recently chosen for inclusion in the Pittsburgh Society of Artists 55th annual exhibit. Pretty nice since it was a juried exhibit and many people that submitted did not get in. The exhibit is in a gallery space in Pittsburgh's historic South Side and runs from July 9 to August 28. I started this by toning white the paper with charcoal, and then drawing over that, and finally lifting out the highlights with an eraser.
The actual drawing itself is much larger than the skull. Below is my studio set up when doing a drawing from life of a single small item.
I have a big old drawing table that inclines to a nice angle. The surface is all nicked up, so I put a clean drawing board on that to draw on. To my left, under the light, I built a shelf out of foam-core to sit small subjects on. I like this setup because it gets me close as I can be to the subject to see it well.
