For this year’s required art class, I choose to start working in graphite and charcoals, something had had little to no good experience with. However, after a semester of this and some YouTube videos teaching me how to blend, I’ve finally become pretty good at working with those mediums. Curious to see what else I could do with something similar, I decided to print off a template photo that I could trace onto a separate sheet of paper and try my hand at pastels. The pastels I used were actually scented sidewalk chalk that I’ve had for I while that I shaved down into a powder when necessary and blended into the paper to get this picture.
For a first attempt at portraiture in a medium I am still kinda a beginner with, I would say it came out pretty well and would rate it a 9.5/10. While the skin looks great, the hair could’ve had some more shadow and variation to it instead of looking pretty flat. The background ( which I did in charcoal) also came out a bit streaky and needed to be blended out more. I also think I could’ve put more shadow behind the girl’s head to make it look like some form of light is hitting the side of her face. However, other than that, I’m proud of this portrait and hope y’all like it as well.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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