Animal Skull

This piece was an in class study of rendering a skull. Additionally, there was a study of drapery in this piece as well. It contains a high range of value throughout. The materials used in this piece were graphite and charcoal. It was rendered on 22”x30” drawing paper. It was drawn from an observation of an animal skull set up in the classroom. Initially, I started out creating the skull a little too shaded. However, I was able to make up for this by creating a dark shaded background, which brought the skull out in the foreground. This shaded background makes great use of positive and negative space. It helped the skull to be more balanced. The composition is additionally interesting as the skull is not in the center. There is a variety of value range in the piece. In the end, I think that the skull being a bit darker made the overall result more interesting. If I were to redo this piece again, I would use white charcoal or white conte to brighten up the skull further. I would additionally sketch more rendered skulls as practice. This piece was somewhat challenging for me, but the end result is aesthetic.