March 2025
With this piece my instructor wanted us to learn how to use charcoal and chose a piece of lettuce as a starting subject. My process began by completely blacking out the paper with charcoal to create a rich, dark surface. From there I used an eraser to pull out highlights and outline the shape of the lettuce. This subtractive method helped me focus on light and form in a new way. It was a great introduction to working with charcoal and exploring how to build an image by removing rather than adding.
March 2025
For our second project, my professor had us draw a styrofoam ball and a paper bag. I struggled with getting the lighting to look right, which made it a little tricky. My process was pretty much the same as when I drew the lettuce. I started with an outline and worked on getting the proportions down first. The ball came pretty easy to me, but the bag in the back gave me a hard time, especially trying to draw all the wrinkles and folds.
March 2025
For this last assignment, we were supposed to use charcoal to create five important things that mean something to us. I struggled at first to find the right items and to light them in a way that made each one look different and added a challenge for me. I chose a photo album of my family, a stuffed animal my boyfriend gave me, a book that’s a symbol of a movie my sister and I watched a long time ago, two frogs, and my dad’s hat. The hardest part for me was trying to get the texture of the stuffed animal right and not putting too much detail into the photo album. I managed to get the plush texture by pressing a molded eraser into it, which helped me achieve the look I wanted.
