Drawing from the Dark

In my Design Visualization class, we were assigned to draw a self portrait "from the dark." We were instructed to angle a light on our face in a dark room, so to create a dynamic contrast between the light and shadows across our face. We were to use a white pencil to draw these light areas, thus creating a portrait of our face. This was very difficult for me, as I was fearful of the extreme contrast and found it hard to produce a face from the light areas.