Charcoal Drawing

In the project I used charcoal to create an image of mountains while using different techniques to create various patterns and textures to my work. While looking at this you will see 3 mountains overlapping one another and a single pine tree in the very front, with a shaded sky. There isn’t really a story or anything that I wanted to convey, I just really wanted to draw some mountains. Originally for this project I wanted to draw a tree, or flowers, mostly a tree so that I could play with techniques and create different textures for each part, but in the end I decided to keep it simple and went with mountains.

In order to create this project I first started of with a smooth piece of paper after creating my sketch. I used a pencil to create a simple outline for my drawing, then I took a conte crayon and used it to create a bold outline for my mountains, Mistakenly adding very harsh lines that acted as snowtops. Then I began to fill in the very back mountain, i began by using a charcoal stick. I rubbed it along the paper and then would use my finger to spread out and shade the mountain, on the left hand side I wanted to be a little adventurous so I took a watercolor brush and some water painted part of the mountain. In the middle of the back mountain I made my attempt at a crosshatch texture. It created a look that made the back mountain darker towards the bottom and somewhat of a gradient to the top (but it was completely colored in). I then shaded in the rest of the mountain and used my finger rather than a smudge stick. For the mountain on the right I tried to do a wider crosshatch look but it didn’t really work out so I used a charcoal pencil and shaded it in with my finger while going in circular motions so it didn't look so boring.  This ended up being the darkest of the 3, I used a kneaded eraser to try to get rid of any excess but it still appeared very dark. Next I drew my Pine tree using a charcoal pencil and a charcoal stick, this also came out too dark, but I used a white charcoal pencil to help lighten it up. In hindsight I should’ve made my tree bigger, it is rather small and useless and wasn’t very thought through at the time. For my last mountain I used the stippling technique mostly for fun and testing a new idea. I then shaded it in to add more color, because this would be the lightest of the 3. I personally liked this effect, even though it is more of a technique for pens or pencils, it worked with charcoal also. After I finished  everything I decided to Make a slight gradient in the sky, using a charcoal stick  because I found it to be the easiest to shade and work with. After that I finished off my piece by spraying it with a setting spray so it wouldn’t smudge.

This is the first time I’ve done something like this, it doesn’t really relate to any of my past work/ doodles. I could somewhat relate to pencil drawings that I’ve done and shaded in instead of colored, I never used charcoal or smudge sticks, just a pencil and my finger.  I feel like I could’ve taken more time to learn and test  new techniques to try, and come up with a better way to use and show them, but I'm not upset with what I did. New techniques are important because they can add more depth and tone to your work, for me personally I really liked the stippling technique and will probably use it more. It is a lot of tedious work but I enjoy the overall look of it and it can add more pizazz to a drawing.  Using this technique and crosshatching are probably what i’m the most proud of because I feel like i can incorporate this new ideas into future work and use them to add more texture instead of everything being so flat.

I wouldn’t mind doing this project over again, I can always try again but with my original tree idea and learn even more techniques. I feel like my final project came out alright, it's not my best work but i like the somewhat simplistic tone of it. I can learn more as a person who has an interest in art and only get better through experience and learning more and more.