Month: December 2019

Charcoal Still Life

This is a charcoal drawing of a spray bottle, next to a small, white bowl on top of a rectangular foam block. Bellow the foam block is a sea shell with a fake bone next to the shell.

A charcoal drawing done with charcoal and blending. This was my first time working with charcoal in this way and I tried my best to capture what I was seeing. I first covered the paper completely in charcoal. I then blended and outlined with charcoal and an eraser as necessary as well as blending with my fingers just a bit. I tried to limit using my hands and fingers as the oils from fingers and hands can make erasing and correcting more difficult in the long run. I also included a blending chart in the corner for reference. I tried to blend and shade based on what I was seeing in the still life itself as well as making the outlines dark but not so dark that it wasn’t realistic.

I am hoping to improve over time and I realize it’s not a perfect drawing. However, it is a first attempt and it is not expected to be perfect on the first try.

Portrait of Estelle

This is a graphite and charcoal portrait drawing of a female classmate.
This is a graphite and charcoal drawing of my classmate Estelle. It’s a portrait, so she is facing me straight on. I started the drawing by sketching out basic facial features and doing some shading to establish some 3-dimensionality. Then I began to add finer details both in shading and subtle lines that make Estelle look more like herself.

Portrait: Trinity

This image is a portrait of my classmate, Trinity. For the basic face form I started out with an circle for a realistic , circular form of the cranium , and then I added in the chin. I used vinyl charcoal throughout this whole piece. The hardness of the vinyl charcoal around the eyes was to highlight her eye shape, and bring the piece to life. Creating the eyes was a challenging , but I started them with equidistant from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin (you can see the line of measurement). I carried on to thre nose . I started with a circle for the point of the nose, then extended the nose with a tent shape. To make the line less harsh I used a paper towel to lighten the ash of the charcoal. The corner of each lip had to be aligned with the middle of eachy line , and I added a shadow to the top lip to give a sense of plumpness. The last step was adding the hair and value to the face. It's important use the hair as a guide to her face structure and ears. Also, addimg value helped the picture look more realistic based on a face having different natural shadows( value) , and highlights little features in her face. Materials: - Vinyl Charcoal - Drawing paper Pad - 2H Drawing Pencil (for measurements) -Kneaded Eraser
This image is a portrait of my classmate, Trinity. For the basic face form I started out with an circle for a realistic , circular form of the cranium , and then I added in the chin. I used vinyl charcoal throughout this whole piece. The hardness of the vinyl charcoal around the eyes was to highlight her eye shape, and bring the piece to life. Creating the eyes was a challenging , but I started them with equidistant from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin (you can see the line of measurement). I carried on to the nose . I started with a circle for the point of the nose, then extended the nose with a tent shape. To make the lines less harsh I used a paper towel to lighten the ash of the charcoal. The corner of each lip had to be aligned with the middle of each line , and I added a shadow to the top lip to give a sense of plumpness. The last step was addition of the hair and value to the face. It’s important use the hair as a guide to her face structure and ears. Also, adding value helped the picture look more realistic based on a face having different natural shadows , and still contributing to highlighting little features in her face.

Materials:
Vinyl Charcoal
Drawing paper Pad
2H Drawing Pencil (for measurements)
Kneaded Eraser

Negative Space Still Life

A negative space still life of a tea pot, boxes, and a can with a fabric backdrop

For this drawing, I tried to use negative space and contrast to define its lines instead of harder lines, to a degree of success. At first, the canvas was full of charcoal, and slowly erased away to detail the shapes.

I think I could’ve done better on this drawing. While I’ve upped the contrast on the picture, it has some obvious lines, as well as an overall messy look. Some shapes are easily made out, but others are less defined and trickier to analyze. If I redid this, I would likely be more deliberate in what I erase.

Cross-Contour Still Life

A Cross-Contour still life drawing of a spring, a ball, a vase, and a metal comb in grey with white contour lines. The background is orange,

For this drawing, I wanted to do a still life with some negative space qualities, as well as use cross contour and shading to give the objects depth in an interesting way. First, I drew out the objects in the still-life, then I drew the contour lines in. After that, I shaded in the shapes, letting the graphite contrast with the contour lines. Finally, I filled in the background to contrast with the objects in the frame

I think the visual effect could have been better executed with a more consistent background color, as well as shaded the shapes in darker to make the white color pop more.

That said, I’m happy with the concept and now have something to further develop if I want to.

Hand Contour Drawings

Ten contour line drawings of hands in various poses, including a finger pointing up, and a thumbs up.

This is a set of hand contour drawings I did when we were studying contour lines. My main focus was attempting to get a variety of “poses”, which I modeled on my left hand. I tried to avoid doing typical gestures to make it easier to draw from sight, and not from memory. I think I was mostly successful in this.

It was a little tricky, however, as it’s more difficult to correct mistakes in contour line without losing detail, and it’s additionally difficult to do detail in general.

I feel I did better with the smaller hands, as they look better proportioned.

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