They're Great

Here is a shot of the brown paper study for my newest still life. I often do a brown paper study to find out, if the image is worth painting, to see if it has a nice arrangement of light and dark shapes, and finally to decide the cropping. I draw it life size, but it is drawn on paper larger than the final composition. So I am drawing out of the final crop a bit. Do you understand what I mean there?
Just in case, I do a drawing larger than I think the final composition will be, so I can know for sure what the picture will look like. If I try to draw it in the square perfectly the first time, it makes it more difficult if I want to add space to the top for example. It is easier to crop out, then to add on. So after this big drawing is done, I can use strips of paper to crop in and pick the best arrangement in the square.
The brown paper is the cheap construction paper you can buy in rolls at the hardware store.

The final crop ended up being 26 x 20.
I do the drawing in medium charcoal and then use chalk for the white. The nice thing about the brown paper is that it provides a medium tone and one just has to draw the lights and darks.
Look for me to post the painted lay in very soon.