Mixed Media Drawing

Our class was given the task of completing a mixed media drawing with charcoal and ink on toned paper using a photo reference. Before we had to do that we practiced using value with value scales, and then we were supposed to shade spheres with ink and charcoal. My subject is a cousin, Kevin Ng. I took this picture at the Moore St playground and he is wearing a flower crown. First I gridded the printed out picture and gridded the paper I was going to be drawing on. Then I used charcoal, white charcoal, ink and a shammy to blend.

As far as principles used, there really was just value that was heavily relied on. The composition is how it is in the photo (kind of) and there's no color. I don't really think I did a good job with the values, especially in the background on in his face. Although I tried to make the face not seem flat, I didn't capture the form well enough. I think It's because of the wacky proportions that I didn't realize were wrong until I had already put charcoal down. The background is also lacking a lot of form and value, as well as the flowers in his hair. Everything looks flat with some value variations. My project did evolve in one aspect as I was going along with my drawing, almost completely in charcoal before I realized I needed to do some ink as well. So I decided to go over the beam with ink which was originally charcoal, and I inked some other parts as well.

There is no meaning to this piece, but there is a story behind the photo, so I guess I should tell it. I was walking with Kevin and two of my very young cousins. The two young ones wanted to go to the playground to pick flowers so Kevin and I went with them. I decided to make a flower crown for one of them to wear, however they were scared of the flowers after finding a bug in one of the daisies they picked. So they didn't wear the one I made for them. Kevin said he would wear it and I took some pictures. This piece relates to my life as it is a drawing of my dear cousin. I think I'm most proud of myself for being able to work with charcoal. I've never liked using charcoal because it's kind of hard to control, especially when blending. But I think it turned out alright. I definitely struggled with finishing this piece. I think it was because I was trying to render every detail and that was quite time consuming. In the end I did manage to finish it. With that being said, I really don't like how the finished product looks. The proportions are horrible on the face. I have trouble drawing big, so I messed up. The eyes and nose look really weird. I think it's because the face is kind of tilted to an angle but the eyes and nose aren't. I also made the face quite wide. If I were to revise this somehow, I would fix that and maybe render the flowers some more.