Charcoal

In this session on the 11th of September we were asked to do several timed sketches of keys, 2 min, 1 min and 30 seconds. We then went on to do the similar tasks but we had to use my left hand and blind drawing. We used several materials during this lesson such as drawings pencils, putty rubber and charcoal. It was the first time i had ever used charcoal so i was completely new to how to use it. I had also used quite a few techniques as well these include; blind drawing, timed sketches, alternative hand drawing and scale. I found it difficult at first to try and think of the size I should try and draw the keys at and to make sure that it was all drawn to scale. Areas of work that i think worked well was the scale and size of my drawing as i found it hard at the start. An area of my work that i think could be improved would be the charcoal tone, this is because i don't think it looks very good and i could of  used the charcoal in a better way this would mean my work would be more accurate and the tones would be mixed better. Also I would change the shape of my third key (key in the background/one I've already started) because when i look back at the drawing now i can instantly see the size of the end of the key compared with the body of the key. it would definitely need re-shaping and making bigger. this would mean that all of my drawing would be more accurate and to scale. To extend my skills i will practice techniques that I have started in class and improve so when I come to do it in class or for any project I may have I will be used to the technique and know how to do it effectively. I will also look at my fellow peers work and take ways they have used different techniques and carried them out on their work and take it and try and either re-create it or take parts of it and improve my work with what I've learnt from them.

I then compared my work to a piece of charcoal art I found on the Internet that I really like. What I like about the professional art work I found was that the charcoal has been blended so well that it looks realistic. Also the charcoal has been used to make shadows and to show where the light has been reflecting off of the keys onto what they have been laid on. Also the shadows that have been made by the charcoal to also show where the light has been reflecting onto the keys. One thing I would take to use on my work would be the blending of the charcoal, I would practice at home to perfect my technique so when I was to finish my work the keys would look more realistic. 

Extension 

For my extension of this material I went off and chose an image off the internet to draw in charcoal. I decided to draw a flower as they seem easier to show tone through petals and the background.

To start this drawing i first used a 2B pencil to draw the outline of the flower. I did this because i wanted the drawing to have an accurate size and scale on the page. I then went onto using the charcoal to show the tones throughout the drawing using the side of the charcoal instead of the point because I found that it made a more delicate mark whereas the point of the charcoal was hard and not easy to smudge and blend out. After doing most of the flower with only darker tones I went onto using the point of the charcoal on the background. I decided to shade all of the background in as I thought it would make the drawing look more realistic. I then went onto using the white charcoal to show the little beads of light in the centre of the image, after doing these I used the point of the charcoal again because I wanted the lines to be dark and strong because they needed to be seen as the stems. After completing the image I thought it was an improvement to my first charcoal drawing of the keys, I think this was down to the drawing being a smaller size so it easier to show the detail. I think if i was to improve this I would start off by researching the technique of how to use charcoal correctly and effectively, then use my knowledge and understanding into another drawing of a bigger scale. This would able me to show my progress and improvements of using this material.