Drawing Final

The last thing that we learned in drawing class before the semester ended was how to do ink-wash drawings (paintings?). You take india ink and dilute it with water to get the shade you are looking for. It's easiest to first create a 2 tone drawing (1 shade of ink plus the white of your paper) and then go in with your darker tones. The final assignment was to do an ink-wash study after doing 4 small gesture (loose, quick) studies. Then you got to sit one on one with the teacher and discuss your work. I decided to do a still life, you had to create something interesting and dynamic looking and not get caught up in too much detail. That wasn't too hard since you are painting with a big fat bamboo brush! I'd never done these before this class so it was kinda neat to do.
Here's the still life I set up:

Here it is in black and white:

And here's my finished piece. This isn't the greatest photo:

Sometimes being a B&W photographer comes in really handy- after years of taking pictures I can pretty much look at anything and know what it will look like in B&W. I was able to look at the still life and guesstimate what tones to use more easily than the other kids. My critique went well, my teacher liked what I turned in. I was all done with finals last Friday and it feels pretty great.