Project 5: Blending White and Black Charcoal

Our next (and second to last) assignment will further reinforce everything we've talked about as far as value. We discussed value when we learned both pencil value studies and crosshatching. This will be the same idea, but we have a new twist.

We've got both white charcoal and black charcoal to work with, and will be working on a medium gray sheet of paper. When we want really strong highlights, we'll use white. When we want really strong shadows, black. When we want the mid-range of the value scale, we'll be blending together the white and black in different amounts to create our mid-tones.

What you'll need for this assignment is one sheet of gray Canson Mi-tientes. You'll be cutting it down to 10" x 10." You can either carefully use an exacto knife and a ruler, or if you're near Bloch hall there is a paper cutter in room 1 (in the basement..it's kind of in small closet area adjoining room 1)..just be careful with cutting your paper. You'll also need your black charcoal pencils, white charcoal pencil, and blending stump/tortillion.

You'll need to gather three different textures for this. The textures should have a good amount of depth/surface to them - things that are woven work well. Some things that have worked well for people in the past: woven baskets, rope, jewerly chains, pinecones, etc. Send me pictures of what you plan on using.

Your goal in this is to create a drawing in which each texture gradually (and seamlessly) transitions from one texture to another. You will go completely off each edge. Here are some examples:

You should be looking at the object you're drawing closely the entire time. Again, contrast here is key. You should have a full range of value (darks, midtones, and highlights). It works really where when there are really deep shadows and really bright highlights.

Again the first thing to do is gather your objects, think a little about how the composition will work, and start your contour. You should at least do a full pencil contour for the first object. Then after you've drawn your first object, start adding the charcoal. Please visit the you-tube video of charcoal drawing over at the you-tube channel. Feel free to send image at any point in this process. you'll definitely want to send an image once a small area of your drawing is complete.