Mixed Media

Artist statement:

In this project, we were asked to make a still life drawing from a photo and we had to make 3 scales. 1 used graphite(pencil.) 1 used charcoal and the last one used ink. This was because this drawing was based on using charcoal and ink. Graphite was used mostly for smaller details. In this project, it was suggested that we choose a natural object so I chose to use a picture of my cat, Lovey. We got her 2 years ago and she is definitely a friendly cat. I thought her photo would be perfect for this project because her fur has multiple different shades, especially when turned to black and white.

For this project, we were using charcoal and ink. We had all different kinds of charcoal and if we wanted to have different shades of ink then we add water to make more of a light or dark gray. I worked a lot with some of the skinny sticks of charcoal because they were more controllable and they made it easier for me to make more precise marks. For erasing we used the black eraser because it made it possible to erase really dark charcoal marks.

For this project, we also used the gridding process just like we did with the self-portrait. The gridding process makes for a more clear and precise picture because you can focus on smaller details. Since I was driving an animal you want to be able to focus on different kinds of details such as fur, eyes, and different textures. My project evolved as we went square by square. Adding all the squares was hard because you had to look at things from a different perspective but, overall it was pretty good. My next step for this project would be to try to incorporate the background of the original photo. The background was too crowded to incorporate with the shape of the cat but for next time I would try and make the original Square bigger to incorporate the background.