By Emily Beaumont

To complete this exercise, I took a piece of paper and screwed it up and just let it unfold naturally. I set it in front of me and chose my favourite angle. I started by lightly outlining the edge of the paper. I then began to fill in the creases. I added shading and highlighting by pressing harder or erasing. *I liked this exercise because no two bits of crumpled paper are the same so the outcome will always be unique. I didn’t manage to take a photo of the crumpled paper as my dad had already thrown it away, sorry! I found this fairly challenging because it’s hard to remember where you are on the paper. I like how I added highlights to certain edges using an eraser. I would pay more attention to shading in different tones next time.

The object I chose was a hair clip. To make it easier, I cut a square out of a square of paper to create a frame to put over the area of the clip I wanted to draw. I found defining the edges of certain details difficult because all the graphite blends together. I like the detail I managed to add. Next time I would take more time to add dimension by shading precisely. The hair clip I was drawing.

Used on self portrait I ventured out to a bit of woodland near my house and collected some leaves, berries, flowers and other objects. Here are a few of them. *I found it difficult to control some of the tools. Some were either too big or floppy/ didn’t keep their shape. I chose 3 of me favourite marks and tested them again on a bigger scale. I attached the leaves and other objects to sticks using string.

The tool I used. *I have never used ink before so I found it both interesting and difficult working with something new. I used something from a tree (sorry, I don’t know the name of it) which has individual, spiky leaves. I attached it to a stick with string (pictured). I loved the challenge of trying to get neat lines and shading in some areas and trying to use just one of the leaves for single lines. Next time I would experiment more with different tools. I like how the hair looks quite messy and realistic looking with the scratchy lines. I am pleased with how it turned out considering it was my first time using ink.