Beach treasures: Reductive drawing

I know that this doesn't look like my usual drawings, but here's the backstory:

I was down in Ventura a few weekends ago, and had a very successful morning beachcombing. My husband and I found four sand dollars in perfect condition! We went to a spot where all of the birds were hanging out, thinking that might indicate lots of goodies washing in, and it worked!

In my life-drawing meet-up, I've been doing some "reductive" drawings: basically smearing charcoal all over the paper and then "drawing" with a kneaded eraser. Since this was clearly going to be a rather monochromatic drawing, the method seemed to fit.

 Uh-oh....I knew right away that I'd made a big mistake not giving more thought to the size and placement of the sand dollars on the page. Clearly, the final piece would have to be cropped from this one, which was a disappointment, as I really like the rough edges of the charcoal-toned area.

But I had such fun, working quickly and loosely. And I love the texture of the charcoal on the paper:

But if you prefer my tighter, more detailed drawings—fear not! Here's what's on my drawing board at the moment: one of the sand dollars drawn at 2x life-size (I've cranked up the contrast to make it easier to see the lighter parts.) :

Happy Summer!!