Oh, good luck on the charcoal one! Take a photo and post it, we wanna seeeeee!
Well, I'm not gonna oil paint *that* Mana one... maybe *a* Mana at some point in the future... that one was just a sketch. Or meant to be; then I got sort of drawn into that terrible careful preciousness so detested by art tutors

.....but, that kind of delicate style is simply demanded by Mana, ne? Not sure if I'm gonna oil paint that one or another portrait of him that I've got, or that one where he's sitting by a window in a white wedding-y dress... Hmmmm.... *is spoilt for choice*
Thanks for being nice about my pics

To be honest, I hated the hair on the Phobia one... :sorry: (maybe it looks better at a kind of photographed-and-reduced-in-size remove!)
Hmmm... Totchi looks like a dork on the photo anyway... does that give me a get-out? *thinks not but is desperately trying* I'm sure he has teeth really...

oh I used ordinary pencils for all of them btw (B, 2B & 6B)
Yeah, working in charcoal is great! I like to put down a mid-tone first, rub over the whole lot, then start taking out the highlights with putty eraser. Maybe you work like this also... it's a really good way of getting rid of the scary-big-white-sheet-of-paper syndrome

Plus it's somehow better for getting proportions right, too...
Anyway, have fun with it!
