Exhibition Text
The piece was a study of a bird's skull and learning how to use compressed and vine charcoal. I wanted to be able to use value and shading in an effective way, and make a realistic-looking drawing.
Process
I started out with coloring the paper with the vine charcoal, and then sketching out the general shape. I made the skull large as it was the main focus of the drawing, and would make adding details easier. The lines were sketchy in this first photo, since I didn't have a good understanding of how the bird skull bones connected and tried to break things into simple shapes first. It was difficult to draw at first due to the vine charcoal breaking when I colored the paper gray, but I actually found it was easier since I had more control over the smaller pieces.
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Next, I added more of the skull's details after looking at it closely and fixed some parts of my initial sketch. I then began to add the shadows, using the compressed charcoal to shade the left side of the bird skull. Blending the charcoal, I smoothed out the shadows with my finger and tried to lightly erase some parts of the left side for more values and contrast. The smaller details were harder to draw as I tried to figure out how they worked and were separated. I cleaned up some of the lines to make the drawing cleaner.
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Further along into my still life, I adjusted the values of the shadows on the left and started shading in the lighter shadows. At this stage, I tried to erase most of the lines by using the shadows to imply form and blended them in. I further erased and re-drew some of the smaller details. I also used an eraser to add some highlights to the right side of the bird skull, and to give some texture on the beak part. Blending and using vine charcoal for shading, I drew the lines and colored in the teardrop on the forehead.
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Reflection
The last time I used charcoal was in middle school, and even then, it wasn't for too long. I wasn't too familiar with how using vine and compressed charcoal worked, and it was tricky to try to get things right. Trying not to accidentally smudge parts of the drawing or shade so dark it was difficult to erase was tough, but it was doable with a few mistakes here and there. Attempting to shade lightly with the compressed charcoal resulted in lines that weren't easily blended. I learned a lot about how to use charcoal in this still life, and more about values and shadows.
My favorite part was the shading on the left side of the beak, since I believe I did well on the values and making it light and not too dark. The shading helps give it form and contrast against the other parts of the skull. The least favorite is the teardrop shape in the middle of the bird's skull. The line I drew there is visible and was hard to blend in since I used compressed charcoal. If I used vine charcoal, it would have been easier to do so. Overall, I believe I did a nice job in most of the shadows and blending.
The advantage of charcoal is how it's convenient to blend most of your mistakes and sketch lines. Unless you draw too hard with the charcoal or shade too dark, you can redo things to your liking. Charcoal blends soft as well, making shadows easier and not having to worry about the blending as much. It's disadvantages are that due to how well it blends, you can erase entire parts on accident or end up making the shadows too dark. Vine charcoal can be frustrating to work with since it snaps easily, and sometimes it's hard to gauge how dark the shading will be with compressed charcoal.
My favorite part was the shading on the left side of the beak, since I believe I did well on the values and making it light and not too dark. The shading helps give it form and contrast against the other parts of the skull. The least favorite is the teardrop shape in the middle of the bird's skull. The line I drew there is visible and was hard to blend in since I used compressed charcoal. If I used vine charcoal, it would have been easier to do so. Overall, I believe I did a nice job in most of the shadows and blending.
The advantage of charcoal is how it's convenient to blend most of your mistakes and sketch lines. Unless you draw too hard with the charcoal or shade too dark, you can redo things to your liking. Charcoal blends soft as well, making shadows easier and not having to worry about the blending as much. It's disadvantages are that due to how well it blends, you can erase entire parts on accident or end up making the shadows too dark. Vine charcoal can be frustrating to work with since it snaps easily, and sometimes it's hard to gauge how dark the shading will be with compressed charcoal.