Mixed Media

For this project, I decided to draw a picture of my cat. I liked the position he was in as he is balancing on my window and my bed frame. The background of the piece ties it together in the end. This project relates to my life because it is a picture of my cat and I love my cat. It is more fun for me to draw something that is personal to me or something I know about other than drawing something that I see online or in a random picture.

The materials I used to create this piece were graphite pencils, charcoal and ink. At first, it was hard for me to deal with the charcoal because it was a new material to me and it was messy. After a bit more experimenting, I finally figured out how to use them effectively. I also used the white charcoal pencils for the lighter parts of my drawing. I used ink for the eyes and some smaller details towards the end. For the graphite, I filled in some places where the grey tone was not right for any of the other materials I was using.

To draw this piece, I gridded my reference photo along with my paper and drew the whole picture inch by inch. This process helped me a lot and we used it in the previous project so that defiantly helped me form a better understanding of the technique. This project was more difficult than the previous realistic portrait because it was an animal. This animal had very specific details and patterns in its fur so to capture that was defiantly a challenge. I think that this piece evolved when I got used to the materials. For example, in the beginning of the project, I wasn't not feeling good about using charcoal as one of the main materials, but when I got used to it and got better at using it, this project began to look and feel a lot better. My next steps could be adding more detail into the cat and emphasizing the unique patterns in it's fur. I could also maybe blend the charcoal material and the ink material more.