Studying cast drawing with Angela Cunningham helped me tremendously when I was ready to approach a cast study in vine charcoal with Jonathan. This study was the very first one I have done concentrating on value relationships, shadow shapes, and edges. This exercise teaches you to see the different types of shadow and also their shape and edges. Some shadows have soft edges, some have hard edges and some are in between. (To see a detailed description of values and how light shapes form check out this website: huevaluechroma.com)
Not only is charcoal harder to control than pencil, you have to make the lines match perfectly to the cast and you also need to match the values - the lights, the middletones and the darks. I spend about two and a half months on this one and learned a great deal.
