Gridded Charcoal Drawing

Artist Statement

For this project, we were asked to draw two value scales along with 3D spheres using charcoal and ink in order to practice with the unfamiliar materials. We were given two papers, one regular white and one tinted in which we sectioned off into eight even boxes for the charcoal scale, and four 4 for the ink. I began with a medium shade in the middle box, building darker colors to right and lightening my shades to the left. Next, we created a sphere below using the different values from our scale. Once we felt comfortable, we were asked to choose a picture from our photos, print it out, grid it and draw it using ink or charcoal for the summative. We drew these on gridded 18x24 inch tinted papers and were required to showcase a full range of the values throughout the drawing. The materials I used were black and white charcoal, both the sticks and the pencils, as well as an eraser and cloth for blending.

Throughout my work, I used a few elements of art to create the principles of design. We did not use color for this project, but I did use a variety of values of darks and lights which created contrast, texture and emphasis as seen in the fur, background and features on the face. I also used line to create shape, and shape to create pattern throughout my work. I believe there is also a sense of unity because everything is balanced.

This picture was taken of my dog Graeme at a beach on Morse Mountain when we were getting our family photos taken last year. I chose it because it was clear, had good values and because I knew it would be a bit of a challenge considering all the small details in the original picture. I was worried about time, mostly because it was a bigger piece of paper than I was used to but was able to get it finished, working in class and for a half hour or so at home. I also had a harder time with the white charcoal but eventually discovered I needed multiple layers in order to get the shades right. In this project I am most proud of his facial features, when I added them they completely transformed him from a big white blob to my happy old dog.