For my charcoal portrait I used multiple different tools to express my artistic capability. I used 2B, 4B, and 6B charcoal pencils to accentuate the illusion of dimension in the face. The 2B was used for the more hard lines around and in the eyes and the texture of the hair, for they do not blend as easily, the 4B for around the nose and the chin, and finally the 6B for the overall face and hair shading.
I learned how important the white charcoal is for adding highlight on the areas I wanted to make stand out, otherwise it looked really flat. A tool that also really aided me was the kneaded eraser. It helped by literally sticking the pigment off any areas where I made mistakes. I also learned how important it is not to rush adding the darker shades, and how values should not be skipped, but progressively get darker as you apply more pressure to the pencil. Making the hair was difficult, for I have never been good at drawing hair, but I took a chance and tried to focus on thinking of the hair as a whole shape rather than doing each individual strand. That helped resolve my problem to a degree, because instead of it looking very much like spaghetti hair, it ended up resembling the proper texture. I shaded the parts that were darker first, and left the spot for the highlighted pieces empty. Then I put white charcoal and blended the shaded and highlighted areas. Afterwards, I added some strands to fake the textured look.
I believe I communicated through my work by trying to make it as neat as I could. Being a perfectionist, I tried to make the face look as least dirty as I could (charcoal can be really messy), and went wild on the shading in the background to add to the chiaroscuro effect.
Overall I am satisfied with how it came out despite the fact that I had to cut a small part of the bottom off, because my sister stepped on it. I had never used charcoal before and I feel like doing this really gave me a chance to develop my artistic skills by getting me out of my comfort zone and forcing me to look up techniques, and try new things.
I learned how important the white charcoal is for adding highlight on the areas I wanted to make stand out, otherwise it looked really flat. A tool that also really aided me was the kneaded eraser. It helped by literally sticking the pigment off any areas where I made mistakes. I also learned how important it is not to rush adding the darker shades, and how values should not be skipped, but progressively get darker as you apply more pressure to the pencil. Making the hair was difficult, for I have never been good at drawing hair, but I took a chance and tried to focus on thinking of the hair as a whole shape rather than doing each individual strand. That helped resolve my problem to a degree, because instead of it looking very much like spaghetti hair, it ended up resembling the proper texture. I shaded the parts that were darker first, and left the spot for the highlighted pieces empty. Then I put white charcoal and blended the shaded and highlighted areas. Afterwards, I added some strands to fake the textured look.
I believe I communicated through my work by trying to make it as neat as I could. Being a perfectionist, I tried to make the face look as least dirty as I could (charcoal can be really messy), and went wild on the shading in the background to add to the chiaroscuro effect.
Overall I am satisfied with how it came out despite the fact that I had to cut a small part of the bottom off, because my sister stepped on it. I had never used charcoal before and I feel like doing this really gave me a chance to develop my artistic skills by getting me out of my comfort zone and forcing me to look up techniques, and try new things.