Mixed Media Drawing

This artwork was inspired by my cat Hemingway. Earlier in the year, I took a photo of him in an unfinished room in my house, so when I learned about this project I thought it only right to do him justice.  My goal was to get the greytones correct and I wanted to make it look realistic. 

to make it as realistic as possible I used multiple types of charcoal. I used vine charcoal, charcoal pencils (white and black), and charcoal stumps.  I used tortillans (blending stumps), and as a finishing touch, white gel pen and India ink.  

To make this peice, I started by printing out my photo. I then gridded it with a 1'' by 1'' grid. I transferred my grid onto a piece of pastel paper, scaling it up as I did so.  To do the drawing, I went grid by grid, getting the shade right. I did the background first so there was no halo around the focal point. As I shaded, I blended with a tortillan and my fingers. Finally, I sprayed it with a fixer and added a little bit of ink to make the highlights pop.  

I really liked this  project. I had never used white charcoal before and I thought it was really fun to use. I found it really easy to sink into this project and stick with it.