Observed Charcoal Drawing

DAY ONE

DAY TWO

DAY THREE

DAY FOUR (FINISHED)

Peer Review:

• Composition – nice background; showed table end. 
• Shadows are good
• Great contrast
• Stuffed animal – texture good; know it's hard
• Good use of light
• Cleaning up could be a bit better
• Line around the glass could be sharper

My Reflection:

I profess myself satisfied with this work. At any rate, I certainly am a lot more satisfied than I expected to be. My initial reaction when I heard we were doing charcoal was "uuugghhhh noooooo, whyyyyyy" and my reaction now is more like, "how the heck did I do that?" Charcoal is a medium I had worked with only once before (in NJAHS last year) and that turned out okay, I guess, but it wasn't the result I didn't like – it was the process. Same with this time. Drawing in charcoal – or drawing with an eraser on charcoal, as we did now – is just not my thing. The dusty feeling on my fingers makes me squirm, and the dry-on-dry of charcoal on paper sends shivers up my spine. Not to mention how flippin' EASY it is to SMUDGE everything... Thanks, but no thanks. I'll go with pencils any day.

But ignoring the process and the annoyance of working with that medium, I'll focus on composition and such. I'm pretty proud of how it came out, but the wires and the silhouette in the background are eh and the cup isn't that great; it's too fat. Also, on the wineglass, the top line where it intersects with the table shouldn't curve down there, and its shadow is a little squished. I'm pretty proud of Mr. Tiger though (Mr. Lawrence says his name should be Tony, like the frosted flakes tiger, but look – he's drinking tea (or hot chocolate, or coffee)! He's dignified! So he's a mister), and Lil' Gold too (that's the duckie). The shadows came out alright. In terms of contrast and unity, I think I did well, because I overlapped some of the objects and used dark and light. I acknowledge everything my peer reviewer said, basically. I'm also glad I chose the blue background because it looks cool.

That's all I got for now. What d'you think?