Week 3: Planning a drawing directed study

These two sketches of different still-life set-ups took 40 minutes to complete each using a graphite stick. Both of these drawings focus on the arrangement of a still life set-up as well as controlling the lighting in the room.

In the first drawing there is one focal point, the big mug, which holds the viewer’s interest and an area of interest created by the remaining two objects, the orange and the glass. The shadow of the mug seems to show good value as it is supposed to be darker when it’s closer to the object and lighter when it’s distancing itself from the object. It is a good drawing because it has a background and the objects were placed on a surface and thus there are no floating objects.

It is not perfect by any means, as there seems to be a lot of different shadows and reflections were cast from the remaining two objects. The cause of this is that light was coming from different directions and therefore the lighting wasn’t controlled in the room. It seems that the reflection on the glass is a little off, probably because of poor observation. There seems to be an absence of depth when it comes to the glass in the back as it gives the impression that it merges with the mug.

In the second drawing the focal point seems to be the soda can and the area of interest would be the tomato on the left. The viewer’s eye falls on the can at first and then it is drawn by the can’s shadow that falls on the egg and finally the eye is drawn to the tomato. This forms an implied line which makes the shape of a semicircle. As opposed to the first drawing, it is proven that the light was controlled in the room for there are not a lot of shadows and reflection on the table’s surface. It is a good drawing because the composition is balanced as the can contrasts well with the tomato.

However the drawing is not perfect as it seems that the shape of the can is a little bit off. This may be because there seems to be no strong line to distinguish the base of the can from its shadow on the right. On a second look it may seem that the viewer’s eye is following the can’s shadow on the right and then it is lost until it is drawn by the other shadow that falls on the egg.