Still Life Drawings

During the past several classes, we've been working on our still life drawings. First, our task was to pick a single object and draw it. We learned how to first render the object (drawing the shape vaguely) , then drawing the contour (outline), then using different tools in order to achieve the different shadows, highlights, and surfaces on our object. I picked a pear because I thought that it would be easy to draw, especially since we were learning new techniques. The tools that we used to achieve our drawings were: A white chalk crayon, an HB pencil, graphite pencils, charcoal, a blending stick, erasers, and I also used a paper towel to help with blending larger chunks of my drawing. My successes for the first drawing were learning how to capture the shadows and highlights of the object as they are in real life. I used these techniques as we transitioned into our three object drawings. My challenges were drawing the shadow under the pear, as I found it difficult to look realistic.

For my three object still life drawing, I used the triangle composition. This means that I arranged my objects in a way that looks like a triangle. My most used tool for this drawing was definitely the charcoal, as I used it mainly for the shadows in my drawing. I found that it was easy to blend and made it helpful in achieving the different shadows and highlights of the objects in real life. I used the white crayon to help with the highlights, especially on the water bottle as the surface of it is pretty smooth and glossy. My challenges were again, making sure that the shadows on the bottom of the objects looked realistic. I chose to draw a pear, a water bottle, and an eggplant because they had surfaces that were pretty smooth and easy to draw. If I were to go back and improve on this drawing, I would work on the highlights and shadows on my eggplant, and making sure the shadows under the objects looked realistic. Overall, I enjoyed the still life drawings.