Project Description:
We had to choose a personal belonging and draw them in charcoal to show off their textures as well as lighting. So I chose to draw my giraffe stuffed animal named Jeffrey.
Original Sketch:
Process:
The first thing I did before I even started drawing was creating the background. My professor taught us a method of making charcoal backgrounds using a napkin and charcoal sticks. We would use almost the whole stick to color the paper, and then we would soften it by rubbing it with a napkin to create that smooth grey background.
As for drawing Jeffrey, I set him up in the most appealing angle I could, which was a straight upright left-facing profile. Then I put the “light source” coming from the top-left so the shadows would appear towards the bottom-right. I used a compressed charcoal stick to make a bold outline of his body and an eraser to highlight where the light was hitting him. I also used the eraser to highlight his eye, otherwise it would’ve just been a big black dot. I used charcoal blending sticks to give texture to his spots and fur, and charcoal pencil for the more precise details.
In the end, I love how he came out. In fact, for our final we had to choose a previous project from class and make a continuation of it, so I drew two more of my stuffed animals. The one on the left is a bunny and the one on the right is a husky wearing a neck bandana.
Additional Images:
