TENNIS BALL & ERASER DRAWING

I was up early this morning, so, before water aerobics class, I decided to get to work and created this drawing using powdered graphite on a large sheet of newsprint. I was excited to see what kind of marks the ball would create. Had to use a new tennis ball - we used to have millions of used ones floating around but never when you need them! It is a messy process, so I think I will mark this ball graphite and the next one I will use charcoal and then I want to try ink and paint and see what happens. Then comes combining mixed media. One can always put acrylic spray over the image to fix it and then work any material on top. This image was from my head as I didn't take the time to find a picture to work from. I was just making marks and lifting with a white eraser and a kneeded eraser to see how it would work. The ball fit nicely into the top of the graphite powder jar so that made things easier. A shake or two and the ball was "loaded". This was great excercise as the whole arm and body become engaged drawing this size. It will be interesting to try smaller images for less detail. Also I will be trying different surfaces. Lots of exploring with just one new "tool". I finally downloaded my images from our trip to Israel. There are some very interesting faces to work with. So many images, so little time!