Still Life
Exhibition Text:
This is a still life drawing of an object I found interesting in my classroom. I choose this object (even though I have no idea what it is) because it has lots of shadows and grey tones I was eager to work with, perfect for a charcoal creation. This artwork was created with the usage of two types of charcoal, vine and compressed charcoal. The outcome of this piece was for it to have a textured-like appearance, the usage of lines was done in order to achieve this effect. In addition the surface I worked on was a great help in achieving the rough texturing. Overall, the smooth plus the texture aspect was done as expected.
Process #1:
This is the beginning of my artwork, starting with lightly shading the entire paper with the vine charcoal. I then took the vine charcoal and quickly sketched out the object in front of me, with minimal to no details. I'll admit, at times I got a little ahead of myself and began shading, therefore you’ll see small parts of the art with shaded areas already. While sketching the object in front of me, I made sure to stay in one position to not change the perspective in which I was drawing the object in to not mess up my view.
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Process #2:
Although there is no picture to go along with this part of the process, I'll explain it in full detail. During this stage, I began by putting down soft shading in areas I wanted to be dark, since if I went in too harshly, I could’ve made a mistake that would be hard to erase, we can call this the planning stage. More or so I was trying to figure out the areas I wanted to be super light as I wanted to make sure I did not shade those areas. As softly as I could, I drew a line in between these areas, light enough for it to be erased if needed. After I figured out where I wanted my darker and lighter values to be that's when I began the shading process. Starting off with small strokes of light shading with the vine charcoal and gradually building up how harsh I go with the charcoal. Then, switch over to the compressed charcoal and do the same process over and over again.
Process #3:
This is my finished product. I made sure to blend in the shading well to add dimension to the object. After all that was done, I went harsher with the compressed charcoal in areas I wanted to have darker value compared to the rest of the drawing. Adding these darker values helped make my drawing pop more and show more contrast. Then, I went in with the vine charcoal and added soft lines throughout the drawing. The texture was something I was digging in this artwork and felt I wanted more of it since the shading felt too smooth for my liking.
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Reflection
My artwork is of an object found in the classroom, made with only charcoal. When making the piece I made sure not to add a background as I wanted the object to be the focal point, also this being a medium I don't normally work with, I didn't want to do too much. My piece is meant to be realistic, as I wanted it to look as similar as possible to the object in front of me. For me, the best part of my artwork are the specks of lines I drew on the shaded areas to add a rough texture, I wanted my drawing in imply that the object was rough and worn out just be looking at it. A weakness I can find is perhaps the shading. I tried my best to incorporate as much harsh shadows as light to add a nice contrast, although I think I fell a little short in adding darker values in some areas. To improve this artwork, I would go in and add more dark shadows in the corners of the object and in areas close to the light parts to enhance those areas and add a bit of balance between the two. There are also certain parts where the perspective is off and wobbly lines can be easily spotted, those areas are the ones I would go in and fix first. Another small strength of my work that I found are the shadows, although as mentioned, they could have been darker, I do like how they look and I can see that I know where the shadows hit, I just need to now take that knowledge and emphasize it. Throughout the process of this artwork, I learned more about how to use charcoal and the importance of lights and dark's in a realistic drawing. Charcoal was a medium I avoided as it felt confusing at times, but trying it out, I realized that, yes it is difficult but also helps you learn a lot about texture, values but most importantly contrast and how dark's and lights work together. Overall, I am proud of this artwork, although full of fixable mistakes, it was a fun challenge.