Multimedia Drawing

To preface, Exploration in Charcoal was undoubtedly the worst piece of artwork I have made within this class, not only was I displeased with how it turned out, I felt as though it could have been much better if I was able to experiment more with the medium, charcoal. I didn't feel confident making my lines, and I feel as though that shows within the artwork.

To begin, I gridded both the reference photo and the toned paper I was working on, then sketched the general shapes of the skull with a B graphite pencil. Next, using willow charcoal, I shaped the top of the skull and began to lightly sketch the details in. After that, I used stick charcoal to darken all the details I had sketched in, and finished darkening the table.

I struggled to figure out how to use charcoal in this piece, the clean line work I enjoy cannot be achieved with charcoal. In addition, the gray/white of the tape attached to the skull was difficult to achieve, and I only think worked in one area, the top left piece. The biggest frustration I had with this project was that the fact that once I realised that charcoal is for creating value, not lines, I was finished with the project.

As you may have noticed, the background is a bunch of squiggles, which may appear as a cop—out to some, but was in fact a very intentional choice. These squiggles were inspired by the illustrator and author Don Freeman, whose books Norman the Doorman and Corduroy I love, though the internet yields poor results, I remember vividly seeing a book of Freeman's sketches, with prominent squiggles in the background. With these child-like squiggles I tried to capture the spirit I attempted to channel when embarking on this project: the bravery to explore with something new.