Mixed Media

In this piece, I tried to create an accurate representation of a photo I had personally taken.

I used graphite, charcoal, and ink all for different purposes in this piece. I used graphite when I mapped out my paper, the borders, and the gird. I used charcoal for the majority of the drawing as it just goes faster than any other material that I was using and it was also most suitable for almost all areas in this piece. I then used ink in a very certain area, the mountains- so that they would contrast very starkly with the lighter ocean made of charcoal, and for the crack in the rock at the very foreground of the piece. I started this piece by graphing on the sheet of paper, I then started with charcoal trying to go one square at a time, but I quickly realized that was not the best strategy for me, I looked at the reference photo more row by row instead of square by square which ended up being very beneficial for this art piece. I started with the sky, it was darker than the ocean in my reference picture so I had to make sure it wasn't too light, but that it also wasn't too dark. I then blended the entire sky with my fingers and added some darker accents where there were clouds. I started next by figuring out which rows the ocean would take up, and then outlining the coastline and mountains. I then filled the white space above it very lightly with charcoal and made sure that the shade was appropriate before moving on to the mountains. I made them considerably dark with charcoal to start, and then later went in with ink to make them even darker. I made sure that the mountains did not go near where the line for the rock was so I could draw some of the pine trees with charcoal pencils and white charcoal, which I would then blend partially with a blending stone. I shaded the background behind the trees pretty darkly, again with charcoal, before I moved on to shading where the rock was, I made sure it was darker than the sky but not as dark as the mountains before I used ink and a bamboo brush to outline where the crack was to be. I then darkened it with more ink and assed more shading with charcoal around it so that it looks somewhat cohesive with the rest of the rock, and not a random dark line.

Something that I definitely should've thought about before starting my work was how hard I pressed the graphite pencil into the paper while drawing my grid. Because even after erasing the lines you can still see the dents where they used to be.