For this project I did two pieces, the first, a fish, and the second an old man. I will be focusing on the old man for my artist statement. For this piece, I used scratching tools on scratchboard to bring out the highlights and to create an old man. To me, the old man looks sad, like he's had a long life and almost as if he's ready for it to end. I think that he may also be homeless, judging by his shaggy hair and beard. This project has almost no relation to my life I'm sorry to say. I found a non-copyright image online and decided to use it as inspiration. Though I think that his feeling and visual emotion can relate to anyone.

To create this piece I used the grid method, the same realistic drawing method I used in my self-portrait, and scratch tools to scratch away black clay to reveal white. This made the project interesting because I have never experimented with a process where you take out the highlights instead of putting them in.

The process I used to create this piece was relatively simple. I first gridded out the picture I had chosen and printed out, it was black and white to show the highlights with greater detail, and since the final project would also be black and white. Through the project, I primarily used only one tool, which is the basic, red handle tool with a serrated edge on one side. I liked this tool since by using different sides and edges you could make all sorts of different marks. My project started with picking out a picture, I obviously didn't want to use a copyrighted image since it has kind of an 'art' to it already, and didn't want to steal it. I found the picture of the old man and it happened that it was already in black and white and had a full range of values to it. Once I picked it out I printed it out and gridded it out on the paper with a sharpie, and then gridded the same proportions on the scratchboard with a pencil, being careful not to accidentally scratch the board. I then started the project, as a whole, the project went pretty smoothly I think. I started at the bottom with the beard and work my way up. The beard was fun since it was just a lot of white lines, though I made sure to control the density of the hair when needed. The most difficult part to get right was probably the mouth but I don't think it looks awful. I kept on moving up the face, it was a slow but steady process. Line by line it came together. As I said, the whole project went pretty smoothly so there is not much to be said. The face was fun and I picked up the strategy pretty quickly. The creases look pretty good I think but they could use some work. I also want to say that I chose the blank background for both of the pieces because of other pieces I saw online. I think that the blank background brings the piece to the front like you could reach out and touch it I think. When I got to the hair on his head I had to figure out how to approach the angles, it was a bit complicated so I started out light with the tools. I eventually got the strokes down but compared to the image the hair is way too white. I shouldn't have added so many highlights, but it looks decent either way. When I finished up the hair I was finally done, and to add the final touches I signed my name at the bottom. I think that my next steps might be to touch up the face and add some more black to certain earas to redo them. Other than that, I don't think much cant be done. I don't even know how well adding ink back on would work since I beat the cardstock up so much.