Multimedia Drawing

My assignment was to create a realistic drawing of a photo with charcoal and ink. the subject of my creation is my Grammie's dog Apollo. I started with a grid on a paper and a grid on the photo and drew the photo on the paper. I then erased the grid and started gradually adding values with charcoal, then added texture with ink.

The elements and principles I used were value, texture, and contrast. I started unsure how to use ink but added lines for fur texture. I also couldn't blend the white and black charcoal very well, but I eventually found a technique.

Apollo is my grammie's dog, and he's really old. He's been around as long as I can remember. He's basically my dog and I love him lots. He is calm and gentle and is getting old. I don't like many animals, so he is special. I took this picture myself. I am proud of the texture and the highlights in this drawing. It looks very realistic in my opinion. I struggled with blending the hilights with the dark fur. I simply continued blending until it looked right. if I could change anything, I would want to get rid of the ink spills, but I don't know if that's possible.