I'm Karen Ruffles, and I've been working as a freelance artist for over 30 years. I specialise in charcoal pencil drawings and my work has appeared in books, on album covers and even bodies (as tattoos, I hasten to add).

 

I fell in love with charcoal many years ago - I'd always been very detail orientated in my work, and graphite pencils gave me that, but I could never quite get the depth of shadow that I wanted. Until one day I happened to pick up a pack of cheap charcoal ones to try and that was me hooked. They are more temperamental than the regular ones, but the payoff is those velvety blacks. Perfect for an old school grumpy goth like me :)

​

I do a lot of wildlife and landscape work because it allows me to constantly explore new textures and techniques - even after all these years I am still discovering new ways of working with charcoal. It also gives me a huge library of reference materials and experience that I can then apply to my gothic illustrations. 

​