I finally got a fixative spray from Blick Art Materials in Central Square, Cambridge (MA). It means that I can keep my charcoal drawings without worrying about them evaporating(?)!Charcoal is my favorite material so far because so many shades can be expressed with such a simple stick… of course, when your hand is not so tight/shaky. And it is so much fun to erase out spaces. I love charcoal also because it is the first material that my teacher (Anne McGhee) taught me to draw. Lastly, it looks so cool (artist-like?… haha) to draw with charcoal!To celebrate my first purchase of fixative spray, I decided to draw something with charcoal today. The only problem was that it was already 10:00pm when I could sit down for drawing. I skimmed through the drawing book of Seurat that I borrowed from Cambridge Public Library, and found the fantastic drawing that I wanted to copy. The drawing seemed to have every aspects that I needed to practice for like middle tone, dark parts, erased out spaces etc. (Oh, how amazing that Seurat expresses the rays by erasing out the sunlight!)

Georges Seurat, ‘Rays’, 1884

So audaciously I drew, and here is my charcoal drawing: so FIXED to the sketchbook with my new FIXATIVE spray!I know, I know… it looks so different from Seurat’s but well…. that is why he is the Master! I noticed so may things I want to change after I took the photo, but found out it was impossible to fix charcoal drawing after putting on the fixative spray.

*one small tip: The book <Georges Seurat, the Drawings> by Museum of Modern Art (MoMA in NY) is the absolute best if you want to study Seurat’s drawings and paintings.

Georges Seurat <The Drawings>