Mixed Media Graphing

for this assignment we were told to find an image that we liked and turn it black and white so we could draw it with our given mixed media. we had to use charcoal, pencil, and ink. I picked this picture to draw because it's not often I get a picture of my parents smiling. the story behind the picture was we were up at our camp shooting and clearing out the range. my brothers and I were on top of our camp (a conxe box) dancing, so then the parents joined us. also, I wanted a little bit of a challenge which the faces and leaves in the background would do. I spent a LONG time finishing this piece, but when the due date was approaching I started to rush. that's why the faces and bottom half look off. also, I was having looks of stress that week so I was doing it angry, making other things go wrong... it was just a huge mess. I had the most trouble with the faces, but that was expected. I want to work on getting things darker, I find I'm always hesitant to go to the "dark side". I think if I had the guts to draw this darker it would have come out better.

(below is the original image)