In this ART 121 project, I was tasked with assembling a collection of objects that define me as a person, then rendering them using black and white charcoal. The scene features plastic animals, a pair of Adidas shorts, and two bottles of paint. I have collected animal figurines ever since I was young, the amount of detail in the figures inspires me and I love to draw them. I included the Adidas shorts as the brand's iconic three-stripe design is simple, immediately recognizable, and universally applicable, and as such it appeals to my design sensibilities. The paint bottles show some of my creative and artistic side; additionally, their rounded artificial forms help balance out the more organic shapes in the rest of the composition.

The photo also shows a miniature toy Mustang car. I included it in the still life because it is my favorite kind of car, but I did not include it in my final drawing as I felt it did not fit in the composition and does not have as deep of a personal connection.

I then got to work sketching the still life onto a tinted piece of charcoal paper, making sure to use proper sight measuring techniques as I went along. I paid especially close attention to the animals' posing and proportions; these qualities gave the toys their lifelike charm, and I wanted to capture this element in my drawing. My intention was that the viewer might suspend their disbelief and imagine real animals had been shrunk down to fit in this scene.

After the sketch was complete, I was ready to begin applying charcoal. I had made a charcoal illustration prior to this, but I only used black charcoal, so it was interesting to work with the white. I began with the tiger, filling in his figure with the white charcoal stick, ensuring my lines contoured to his musculature to give him volume. To do the shading, I scraped a stick of black charcoal on a separate piece of paper to create a pile of powder. I then dipped my finger in the powder and applied it to the piece in small, well-blended layers.

I continued this process, working from left to right to ensure I did not smudge the important main figures. I added smaller details like the tiger's stripes using charcoal pencils. When I was finished, I cut the area of the picture plane out from the larger piece of paper and sprayed with a sealant.