Multimedia Drawing

In this project we had to use value to make a photorealistic drawing. The materials we were allowed to use were charcoal and ink. We were also allowed to use pencil for the outline of the drawing. The materials I used were charcoal, vine charcoal, white charcoal, and ink. I had trouble finding a place to incorporate the ink, but I ended up putting it in the background to make the objects have a darker shade. At first I struggled with getting the charcoal to blend the way I wanted, but I soon figured out the white charcoal and an eraser is good for making contrast and blending. I think for the most part I did a good job on using the value scale because there are many different shades and not just black and white.

My biggest struggle was the face. First I did the body and the nose and it took a long time to get the right texture, but when I did I moved on to the face. I had a really hard time with it because I couldn't get the fur to look shiny in some places and I could not get as intense of shadows as I wanted without some of the features disappearing. I really do not like how the face turned out. I fixed the eyes by adding a little ink, but nothing else really changed. I tried to add the reflective light on the face shown in the picture, but I could not make it look right.

The background was a struggle of a different kind than drawing the actual dog. At first I started with the background, but then I got bored and went onto the dog. After I finished the dog I had not really done anything with the background. I started in and I created the floor and it was challenging because the floor in the photo is wood tiles which were hard for me because the lines in between each tile (the grout), I could not get the lines to be parallel to each other and I could not get the light reflected off the texture of the wood right either. I fixed my lines then I used white charcoal to draw the reflected light. I had trouble with it, but I kept going. After I finished the floor I added the shadows from the dog. Then I created the wall in the background which was much easier than the floor and did not take too much time.

Overall, I like the dogs body, but I don't really like the head of the dog and I wish I could change it and redo it. I like some of my background, but I wish I had time to add a little more details. Again, I really am not proud of the head at all, but I like the textures I created. I liked using charcoal a lot and I liked this project even though the result was not what I wanted.