Charcoal - the medium that taught me the most.

Charcoal has been undoubtedly the medium that has helped me the most when trying to capture what I see and putting it onto a 2D surface. I would say this is probably the medium that is the closest to oil painting, even though it is a dry medium. Every once in a while I do 20 minute sketches with it, just to say I did something that day, and most of the times...My muse is the model. On this one below she was actually sick at home, so I decided to call this sketch 

" In sickness and in health" 

Alla prima painting.

Yesterday I went for a portrait drawing session. I used to do these with charcoal, and now I have changed to oils. There is nothing more satisfying for me than painting a subject directly from life and trying to capture the similarity, plus the overall mood of the subject.
This was done on a 12x 9 masonite board. And I finally managed to try out my Bitteroot pochade from Alla Prima, done by Ben Haggett. And it is absolutely amazing! It is so good to have a product that generally makes your life easier.