Read something today about how important the fundamentals are to any artist, and generally I agree. So here are two studies of Raphael sketches (at least I know one of them is a Raphael sketch… not sure on the other one). They look cool until you put them side by side with the originals (-: Then it’s clear who’s the master.

I was using vine charcoal but I don’t think that’s what he used judging from the very fine hatch work that I definitely could not emulate… I wonder what he drew with.