Thoughts on Drawing

I originally decided to take drawing in an effort to relax the more imaginative portions of my mind. While I did not get the opportunity until our later class projects, I did get a chance to touch on fundamental that I had not focused on since high school. In high school, much of my drawing and painting for the first two years were done along the guidelines of a specific narrative. This included study drawings, self portraits, value shading, etc. In my latter years of my high school career, I was given the freedom to explore the inner, richer most depths of my imagination. There  I was able to do more abstract, attention honoring work. Most of these works were either done in pencil, or oil paint. I did not work with charcoal until I took the drawing course here at Duke.
Over the past five years, my drawings have dealt with biblical themes, depression, abstract logic, word play, and philosophical debates I hold in my own head. Many times, the work done was done in the efforts to reach an underlining message rather than to look aesthetically pleasing to the eye, for this takes a back seat. In the future, I hope to do more work along similar lines. Through the drawing class I took at Duke, I have found some confidence in drawing with charcoal. I plan to add this tool to my utility belt of creativity. Charcoal portrays a special, powerful dark that I have grown quite fond of. Once explored, I found that a lot of different rich values can be obtained by using charcoal. These textures and values work well with the art work I create, because  of the power behind it, and the attention it demands. For these reasons, if not in a specific art class, I plan to work with charcoal in my own body of work.