Ashtray

Dimensions: 830mm x 585mm

Drawn: 1996

See text below.

This is a really old piece from first year at art school. I had everyone who came to my house over the course of a weekend use separate ashtrays for ash and butts. At the end of the weekend, a frightening amount of ash had been created, and I used that to cover a sheet of paper with a nice, mid tone grey.

Once the grey base was even I drew the image using willow, then blackened in all of the black areas, rubbed out the highlights, and adjusted the level of grey through rubbing back or rubbing more ash in. I added the touch of pastel kind of as an afterthought, kind of through peer pressure, but I am glad that I did. This splash adds a great interest point and adds depth to the final image.

My only regret with this piece is that it makes something very ugly look kind of beautiful.