Ratatouille

For this two part project I decided to depict the place where I work, Cosmos Pizza, and all the workers as rats. The personification of rats in the media has interested me lately. They are often seen as scrappy, dirty, resourceful, and clever; both good and bad traits. I have worked at Cosmos for over a year and made some close friends, and learned hard life lessons. I work the night shift till 12am and sometimes 2am, and I find myself surrounded by people who are scrappy and resourceful. This is where my mind wanders while I’m bored at work. I like to think that these drawings show exactly the kind of person the viewer would think is working the late night shift at a popular college pizza place. Depicting the workers as social outcasts yet apart of their own community, the people who went to college just to end up serving college kids pizzas in the same town 30 years later. I wanted the unsettling look of the night shift to be captured in their eyes.

I have never really drawn with charcoal before, so I had a lot of fun with this project. I tried to accentuate its unique traits in my drawing. Charcoal is really soft and easy to blend and erase sometimes, and sometimes it's harder and can make really dark harsh lines. I tried to include both of these aspects in my piece. I also wanted to try to use the toned and white paper to see what the difference is between the two and what effects they create.