Compositions of natural objects

I found this the most demanding exercise so far.

Getting the various natural objects (apple, vine tomatoes, banana, lemon, a sprig of ivy, a pine cone) to come to life was really hard for me.

I tried using just pencil and some graphite pencil to produce shadows and shading, but I found it very hard to differentiate between the various types of surface using just pencil. For instance, the tomatoes were very shiny and therefore had lots of highlights. I tried shading them in and then rubbing out little spots to make the reflections, but it's not really successful.

Euqally, the lumpy texture of the lemon was hard to portray. The smooth matt textures of the banana and apple were a little easier.

In one picture I tried using water colour pencils to differentiate the fruits, but not to any great effect.

I can see already I need to work much hard on reproducing natural shapes. By their very "nature" they are irregular, in contrast to made objects which tend to be more regular and have clear curves and straight lines.

Still life sketches of made objects

It took me a while to decide on what to draw - a bit fed up with the same old jugs and jars.

Finally went to the garage and gathered up some tools, and took them outside into bright sunlight where we got some very strong and distinct shadows. I used an HB pencil to get the basic shapes and then chose to use a pen. The idea was to improve my cross-hatching to represent shade and shadow.

I'm just wondering whether I should have used different media to bring out the different textures of wood and metal.

Shadows and reflected light - in charcoal

I took a white shiny jug and a glass vase and put them under a strong angled light.

The vase has a nice pattern and produced some very interesting shadow patterns, as well as distorting the shadow of the jug as it passed behind the vase.

However, I found this a very difficult exercise. Charcoal is pretty messy to work with anyway, and I kept accidentally smudging it. The putty rubber proved to be used in bringing out some of the shiny surfaces. I also attempted to convey the patterns of the glass (see top of vase) by drawing it black and then rubbing out to produce stripes, but I couldn't get enough precision using the rubber.

I'm not particularly happy with the resulting drawing, but I think I've learned a bit about applying charcoal (and the rubber!). I obviously have a long way to go before I can convey the impression of different materials such as glass.

Reflected light

I placed three objects by a strong light with the curtains closed so that I got very strong shadows.

I have to admit I found it quite hard to capture the image, and I'm afraid the strong shadows were in danger of looking like big untidy splodges.

Anyway, I'll probably give this another go with some other objects.

Tonal study

This involved drawing a collection of objects (soup ladle, apple, tennis ball and mug) with a strong light source to show shadows and shading.
It proved harder than expected to get to show the exact pattern of shadows - the shadows turned out to be a lot more complex that I had imagined. It was good to position the mug so that I got the shadow of the handle, though. Anyway, here's my first effort....

Supermarket group

With this exercise I tried to get as many different shapes together. Having learned from the previous exercise about the importance of getting the relative positions of objects correct, I was able to work on this with a bit more confidence this time.
I decided at the end to add a pen outline and then a bit of colour with crayons - not too sure about the results....(don't know how to rotate the picture)

Anyway, I dedided then to try again with another group, and to stick  to graphite pencil.

It's a similar grouping of objects, but with a bit more detail shown of the labelling. Again, the exercise showed me the value of trying to look without making assumptions about what you are seeing.

For instance, the shape of the coffee jar seemed slightly unnatural while I was drawing it, but I think that by just sticking closely to what I saw, it manages to look fairly close to the original...

Jugs and Jars exercise - this turned out to be a lot more challenging than the books and boxes exercise. I had two bottles, a jar and two jugs arranged together.
I started off quite confidently but soon found that the different elements didn't line up properly, so there was a lot of rubbing out and re-positioning to be done.
The main lesson from this, I feel, is to look not only at the individual objects but also their relative positions, and the spaces in between them. I also found that by starting off with light dotted lines using a B pencil, it was possible to get an overall outline of the group; then I began working on the more detailed elements, finally working with a softer pencil to do the final lines.
On the whole, this was a very worthwhile exercise, and I definitely found my confidence growing as I went along. However, I can still see that some of the shapes are not exactly right (eg the oval lid of a jar seen side-on), so there's plenty of room for improvement.

Last night I did the Boxes and Books exercise, arranging a number of books, including a large atlas, in a couple of different ways, and trying to capture the shapes and angles.
I was quite happy with the results, and plan to move on to Jugs and Jars today while I still have the wind in my sails....
I guess what I learned from the exercise is to look carefully at the relationships between different objects, and to draw what you actually see rather than what you think you see. 

First exercises

It's taken me a while to get started on the art course after the OCA sent me the course documents. I've enjoyed going out to buy materials(I love art shops), but I think I'm nervous about actually getting started on some real work.

Today I tried one of the early exercises which involved doodling using a variety of different pencils, crayons and pens.

This was surprisingly interesting.

As I expected, using softer graphite pencils (4B to 6B) provides the ability to do more atmospheric shading, but cross-hatching seemed fairly pointless.

Using softer carbon pencils also helped to create a 'rounded' effect, especially when holding the pencil flat rather than point down.

With a sharp pen, you get a clean effect, and cross-hatching can achieve a pleasant shading effect.

Charcoal is also great to use, and by using your fingers to smear it, you can get some lovely subtle shading effects.

With watercolour pencils, the effects were interesting, if a little unpredictable.

And with pastel crayons, I could get a similar range of effects as with a 6B pencil.

Returning to art after 40 years

I've just signed up for an art course with the Open College of the Arts, and my first goal is to complete the basic Drawing Skills module.

I've just retired from being a journalist and I want to return to my first love, which was art. As a boy, I filled dozens of sketchbooks wioth pictures mainly of horses. It was the closest I've ever had to a natural talent. I just hope that after so long, I will be able to rekindle both the passion for art, and the skill to produce some wirhtwhile pictures.