Mixed Media

Artist Statement

The main idea that guided my artwork was trying to use materials other than graphite, such as ink and charcoal, to create a realistic portrait. For this assignment, I chose my cat because the particular photo I picked I thought would be cute to draw, and the colors in her fur really stood out and created a difficult, but learning opportunity, when using the materials.

To make this piece of artwork I used black and white charcoal pencils for everything in the fur, and I used ink when it came to drawing the eyes. I also used graphite in some spots before going in with the other materials so that way I could map out how I wanted to draw certain details. I also used blenders as well as erasers to eliminate any mistakes I made.

When starting my portrait I had to restart completely a couple of times because I had a hard time when it came to using the charcoal material. After a couple of attempts, I spent a lot of time carefully using the white and black charcoal to chart out and draw the fur. I used the white charcoal to add in the parts of her fur that were illuminated by the sun, and the black charcoal to draw the darker parts of her fur. Once I was finished with all of the parts of the drawing involving charcoal, I went in with the ink to draw out the center of my cat's eyes.