What follows is to the best of my recollection.

Materials / Tools

This project was accomplished using the following:

• Sketchbook
• 18 X 24 inch Drawing Paper
• Charcoal Pencils
• Various Erasers
• Eraser shield

Process

Ideally, this process works by the artist adding more charcoal to areas to darken them. In my case, I found I sometimes had to remove charcoal from areas I had rendered too dark. I accomplished this by using the kneaded eraser, which would lift off the charcoal, as opposed to rubbing it off with an eraser. This had less of a damaging effect on the paper.

After building my “recycled being” (an object made from recyclable materials, styled to look like a person /creature), I did a quick sketchbook partial drawing of the “being” in class.

The next day, we began our larger drawing and we worked on it for a couple of class periods. However, at the end of the second day, my drawing was still unfinished, so I came in early before the next class period and worked to complete it. To me this drawing feels like it was started by one person, continued by a second person and completed by a third. Because my technique continued to change as I became more comfortable with the process, the top of the drawing (where I started) looks different than the middle; and the portion that was done on the early morning before class looks like a different style altogether (I attribute this to the need to finish a third of drawing in a short amount of time, so I was working quickly). This latter portion reminds me of the sketchbook drawing I did, and I am actually happier with the results.

In addition to the Recycled Being class drawing, our homework assignment was to create a “Quite Drawing”. This was a medium sized drawing (mine was around 10 inches square) of an object that had significance for us. I chose a spoon. After initially feedback from Professor Lisa that the spoon seemed to “float”, I added some other elements (a coffee mug in the background and a more definite surface for the spoon to rest on) to help ground it 

Feedback

Professor Lisa observed that the necessity to work quickly to finish the project on the morning before the feedback session, allowed me to see that I can trust myself more.