Independent Concentration #1

Drifting Aslep

11" by 9"

Charcoal and graphite

The story behind my artwork is that the girl is tired literally and physically. I created this affect by making her be falling through the sort of patterns one might see when they are about to fall asleep. I also showed this by making her facial expression neutral and almost melancholic, and I made her entire body seem faded in comparison to the bright high contrast world around her. Additionally, I decided to keep the drawing black and white to emphasise this effect. My project relates to my life because this is a feeling that I often get, and it was interesting trying to express the feeling on paper.

I created this using a combination of graphite pencils and charcoal pencils. I started with a very light graphite pencil when I was sketching out the composition, and I moved to darker and darker shades as I felt more confident with the feel of it. Unfortunately, the body proportions are not very good, so I should've spent more time getting it right before using a 6B pencil. I chose to use charcoal and graphite because I wanted to create contrast between the girl and her surroundings, and the darkest graphite is not darker than the darkest charcoal.

I used line to create shapes, and I created form and texture by shading with values. I tried to break up the space using the pattern in the background and her arms and legs. My project started as a thumbnail sketch, then I sketched it on my final paper, then I used darker shades to increase the contrast. Going forward, I think I will fix the proportions and try to come up with a way to add color because it looks sort of flat as it is now.