Mixed Media

For this piece, I used ink, graphite, and charcoal on watercolor paper. I started by creating a grid on my printed photo of my cat, and then a grid on my watercolor paper. I chose this cat because we just got two new kittens and this is one of them. She is super cute! I started in the top left with my charcoal stick and kneaded eraser and went from left to right then moved down a row trying to replicate the image from square to square. In the end, I went back and added highlights with white charcoal to add more brightness, and ink to add the extra darkness in the eyes and darker areas of the fur. This pushed the contrast. I used methods like smudging, erasing, pushing at different strengths, and diluting ink to create the different textures. I really liked how this piece came out and I'm super proud of it. I like the black and white idea but next time I would like to use more ink to push the contrast even more and push the details even further.