Portrait drawings in bistre

Here are two portraits that I drew recently, using Carbothello pastel pencils. The Carbothellos are chalk pastels, and have a lovely texture to work with.

The colour is called bistre. It is a dark greyish-brown, and has a yellowish cast, although the yellowish tint is not really visible in these drawings. The yellowish cast is more obvious in paintings or pen and ink drawings, where the pigment is more transparent. Also, I’ve used a toned paper here, in a colour called Felt Grey, which darkens the effect as well.

Bistre is a very traditional pigment, and has been used by artists for hundreds of years. So what is bistre? The bistre pigment was originally made from soot. The soot came from burning or charring beechwood. I hope that my pencils were made from synthetic pigments, and that no trees were charred in the making of these portraits!