#eemaartz

I used charcoal and chalk from Blick, as well as toned paper from there to complete this assignment.

I did two studies on grey paper using both black and white to study how light and shadow effect an object, and then two on block paper using only white to focus more on the light.

I used the same set of pencils as in the last project, as well as the same illustration board

(Blick brand pencils, Crescent brand illustration board, both purchased at Blick)

This was one of the first pages I did to practice for this project, with two blind contours and one continuous line contour of my shoe.

I also did this page with two cross contours. I really enjoyed the one of my hand.

After those pages of sketches and practice, I jumped into the actual sketches for the main project itself. I was using, for the most part, the same objects as I had been in the last project, although I added a plastic cup in this first one, and ended up getting rid of the purse in the other two 9x12 sketches before the final.

I actually think I like this sketch better than the final, but I feel like that's the plight of an artist. It's mostly because the 18x24 inch final piece is MUCH larger than I'm used to working at- I usually work digitally, and my ipad screen is about 7x9 inches or so, and when I do work in a sketchbook, I don't usually do full page illustrations. Even the 9x12 was a little larger than I'm used to, but I think it was a good challenge.

I could have sworn I took progress photos as I did the final, but I can't for the life of me find them, so an explanation will have to do.

I did the initial sketch in the hardest pencil I had- 10H, but whatever the hardest pencil available was would have worked well. As I layered up detail, I went with softer and softer pencils to create darker lines and to give the drawing a sense of depth.

I chose not to use pens on this piece, although I know some others did. I liked the pencil sketch look.

In this project, I used the following materials:

9x12 inch sketchbook

18x24 inch illustration board (Crescent brand)

Set of drawing pencils, Blick Studio Brand. I used the set of 20, mainly 10H, but the pencil is not extremely important- just the hardest drawing pencil you have will work fine.

Kneaded eraser. I want to say it’s Faber Castel, but the writing has rubbed off its little box so I’m not a hundred percent sure.

Black micron pens. I used size 12, but like the pencils, it doesn’t have to be exact.

Higgins Black Magic Ink

Simply Simmons paint brushes in a variety of sizes. I mainly used the rounded flat and small flat.

A drawing board to protect and keep my piece on, I don’t know the brand.

Large tip black sharpie

All of the above supplies, with the exception of the eraser, which I already owned, were purchased at Blick. Everything listed should be available at most other art stores as well.

The actual subject matter for this piece was two of my shoes and my purse. I did several thumbnail sketches before anything else, to work out how I wanted my composition to be laid out, and where I wanted the areas of positive and negative space/shapes. I also used the thumbnailing stage to make sure that the figures of the three objects were distinct enough from one another to recognize them as what they are, but ambiguous enough in the way the space they occupy overlaps.

After the thumbnails I did several more formal drawings in my 9x12 sketchbook, filling each in with sharpie or ink to get a feel for what the final piece would look like. These more finished drawings also allowed for me to make sure that the form of the drawing as a whole exhibited the principles of gestalt- being seen as a unified whole.

Each 9x12 started with a pencil sketch, followed by outlining the edges in pen- sharpie for most of them, and micron for the one in which I experimented with the ink. This was my first time ever doing a project like this, so I dedicated one 9x12 drawing to learning to use the ink, as I didn’t want to go into the final blind, so to speak. Of course, my sharpie had to give out on the finals drawing. Luckily, it was only a practice, so I wasn’t too concerned.

The final project followed basically the same process, making sure to be extra careful and to outline in micron rather than sharpie, then filling in with ink. I had to be very careful throughout the entire process, and even still managed to get the tiniest smudge of ink on the final. I think that’s okay, though- I’m only human, and I try not to expect perfection in everything I do.

My final reflection on this particular project is that I wish I’d done a better job of squaring it on the illustration board. It’s a little off center, with too much negative space to one side. Oh well. I’ll keep that in mind for the next project I do.

Final image is at the top of this post.