Still Life, Shading Using Charcoal #2

For this charcoal piece the spotlight was taken out and we were left with a more natural light.The main focus of this image is highlights on curved surfaces as shown on the sphere which was drawn primarily by smudging the background inwards then using a putty rubber to take out some of the charcoal and add in the main highlight and repeating until the sphere was done. Then a darker line had to be added to the background around the sphere and smudged out to blend with the rest of the background to give the sphere shape.

Still Life, Shading Using Charcoal #1

This arrangement was drawn in charcoal which is good for expressing the tones and shadows in a still life scene, but because of the messy nature of charcoal a lot of care was taken to makes sure none of the artists smudged their work.

To better help accentuate the differences in the shadows and different values in tones a spotlight was turned on for the scene, while helpful to most this left the people sat at either the same side as the lamp or on the opposite side of the scene with none or too much shadow. luckily the author of this piece wasn't in that situation and has a good variety of tonal values.

There are three points of focus that grab your attention when you look at this image, the cylinder that has shading that follows the shape and contours of its curved surface a, the right face on the cube under the cylinder which practically black and pops out compared to the tame and more smoothed out shading of the surrounding images and finally the cone which has a nice contrasting mix of shading values from the dark harder shading on the left side which blends into the softer left side of the cone and finally the highlight at its centre, 3 different degrees of tonal value that flow into each other.

The last thing to note is the use of the putty rubber to add highlights or take out harsher tones in the drwing, especially on the left side of the drapery which very subtly changes in value from light with highlights of shading to an overall singular tone with the implied line of the tables edge just visible.

Still Life, Form and Implied Lines

In the above graphite image we can better see and understand the shape and forms of each object their 'implied' lines. This understanding can be better seen on the; copper vase (2nd from the left), jug (3rd from the left) and the square vase(on the far right) this is because of the uniformity in the direction of the lines drawn onto the objects, the artist has managed to keep the flowing in the same direction with a good mix of uneven and messiness, this allows you to better follow and see the contours of the objects and their dimensions.

After the lines were drawn on the artist had to shade in the objects and add highlights to glass and copper objects to better add depth, lighting and 3-distentions to the image. The contour lines drawn on earlier help the shading to do this by providing the shading with an easier reference to add the different tones in lighting, it also helps the eye to interpret which was the objects are curving. The highlights were added with a putty rubber at the end of the drawing session and are present on every object in the scene with the exception of the skull in the centre.

Shape and Negative Space

This session was about the understanding of shapes and negative/positive spaces. Using negative spaces the task was to draw a still life arrangement only drawing the outlines of the shapes on the table, ignoring the finer details and just going off of the silhouette of the objects. This resulted in a silhouetted image of the scene, then the negative spaces of the were filled in, so instead of shading and adding more lines or detail to the objects, detail was instead added to the empty spaces around them. Leaving an images of a black background with a line encompassing the whole mass of objects.

Planning a Sketch

The above two images show the artists use of quickly planning a sketch by using a light pencil to sketch out the basic shape and positions of objects on a table using very little pressure. This is shown more in the 1st image as the plan on the second image was filled in and refined as the main sketch was completes.

In the second image there was a good use of proportional measurement with the copper vase and the two smaller vases and the use of shading is generally rough in this image with a mix of good and bad examples. The shading on the table cloth and vase with flowers in is very rough and lacks detail or precision which in and of itself is not a bad thing but when compared to the good use of shading and tones used on the smallest vase and the copper vase detracts from the overall image. Although it could be argued that the shading on the furthest away vase is a good example of perception & depth as less detail would be visible on a more obscured object hidden in the shadows of the flowers and taller vase.

Basic Marks and Perspectives

This is from the first Observation Drawing session of the year, which involved drawing an arrangement of two tables with a cloth draping over them, and a box sitting on the largest table.

This was to get a basic understanding of each students ability at the basics of still life, including; Shading, Tonal value, perspective and ability to measure proportions.

There are three drawings on this page, the first attempt in the middle is barely visible as it was drawn with an incorrect use of proportional measurement and a poor choice of positioning on the page on the part of the artist. The second (on the left) shows a better use of measuring and a good use of tonal value and perspective resulting in a more complete and realistic image. The third and final drawing on the upper left of the page, while being less complete than the second, shows the better example of perspective and proportion of the three, as well as a degree of shading on the box.