Leon Kossoff

Self-Portrait. Verso: Untitled (Two Figures) – 1967

Leon Kossoff’s work is interesting in the way that he has used the material, I find it interesting how Kossoff created tone with the charcoal in the image above using a rubber to take away the surface charcoal making it lighter and how you can clearly see the marks that he has made and how hard he has pressed the charcoal due to the nature of the material, it has a sense of messiness but it also seems quite controlled due to some of the more precise marks around the face but the marks in the background seem quite freeing pushing the face forward. In the piece above you can clearly see where the work has been repeatedly worked on by erasing and re-drawing sections and so it shows the process he went through to get to the final drawing. He uses quite large, expressive marks with whatever material he is using whether it be paint or charcoal most of them all have the same bold lines.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kossoff-self-portrait-verso-untitled-two-figures-t04855