Cross-Hatching Love

2-24-2012

Graphite Pencil-Cross Hatching

(Love Theme)

8x10

For those of you who are not familiar with this kind of cross-hatching, here is my definition: Drawing tiny chex mix pieces to create value (darks and lights/3D forms) within a picture and slaving hours and hours only to finish a small area on the picture :)

I am really proud of this drawing. For one, I've never even heard of, or fathomed about this style/type of cross hatching. When Prof. Carrera (Tracy) was explaining how to do it, I was completely lost and she knew it (probably by the look on my face). I tried doing the exercises for it and failed miserably. She set some limits for me for the assignment, which I think make it a bit harder and made me think a whole lot more, but they really helped. When I draw, I use a TON of layering to create the value, but she basically told me that the most layers I could use would be three. Slowly, but surely (2-3 days), I got the hang of it and the rest of my class excelled (and complained a lot about doing it). I was very happy that I was understanding the concept. Then when it came to do the assignment and I realized how much thinking this assignment involved (much harder than the exercises in class!), I started rethinking the whole 'me starting to like this type of cross-hatching' deal. It is 10xs more painful on my wrist than stippling (nothing like tendonitis to brighten your day) because of how much control you have to have with the pencil. Over all, I'm glad that I was able to finish it and learn oh-so-much!