Week 3 - Composition Focus

Still Life Drawing focusing on Composition

This is a 40-minute sketch of a composition in which my group and I created. The aim and focus of this study was to concentrate on the composition of the relating objects.

This composition is well balanced with the objects not being all bundled up together but split up into two groups. These two groups of objects create a contrast of light and dark. The glass jars reflect the light creating transparent reflections and light shadows. This is also a very open area with these two objects being placed farther apart from each other and also the lines of the cloth being much more straight and open.

This differs from the other group of object which have a dark contrast with them being very dark objects. The area and composition in which they are in is also very closed. These objects are packed very close together allowing them to overlap one another. The cloth also has very short, sharp folds within it creating hard shadows within the cloth, which the objects are rested upon. The theme of the dark transition carries on throughout the stools, which lay underneath the table. On the left hand side the majority of the stool cannot be seen because it is covered with the pale cloth, which brightens up this whole side of the drawing. However, on the left hand side the stool is visible continuing with the dark contrast.  This contrast is broken up by the pale tabletop, which is pleasing to the eye as the contrast of light and dark work very well together.

The pale material of cloth that spreads across the entire table connects these two groups. This joins them all together as one composition rather than two.

If I were to do this drawing again I would make sure I got all my measurements correct as I feel that the glass jars are not in well proportion to one another. These two objects were supposed to be the same size however, I got my proportions wrong and as a result of this one jar looks considerably smaller than the other.

Week 2 - Mass, Form & Shape

Still Life Drawing of an Arrangement of Objects

'Plain Contour Drawing'

This is a plain contour drawing of four different objects.  In this study we concentrated on the lines and left shading out completely. This enables the eye to concentrate on the basic shape of an object rather than the light and shadow. 

Focusing on the basic shape of these objects gives the drawing a more plain but accurate finish as it is much easier to get the lines in the correct places and easy to correct a mistake. However, with having less detail in a drawing it is sometimes hard to understand what an object is. This is the case with the drapery as it can just look like scribbles on a page.

Still Life Drawing of an Arrangement of Objects

'Plain Contour Drawing2'

This is another plain contour drawing using the same objects but with a different vantage point. The composition of these objects were set up with the observational line falling across the top of the objects from the very tallest to the very smallest. This observational line leads the eye to look at the composition as a whole rather than just focusing on the single objects.

If I were to draw this composition again I would choose a vantage point where there were no kissing objects. I noticed while drawing these objects that the edge of the jug and the top of the plastic tube had lines that were touching. This distracts the eye from the other objects and leads you to focus more on these kissing objects.

Still Life Drawing of an Arrangement of Objects

'Negative Space Drawing'

This is a negative space drawing. Rather than drawing the objects, I picked out the shape of them and shaded in the areas using a graphite stick that were negative and kept the shape of the objects white. This gives the drawing a whole new viewing perspective.

Even with no form it is clear to see what most of the objects are and the darkness of the negative space makes the shape of the objects stand out even more.

Week 1 - Still Life

Still Life Drawing of a piece of Drapery, Table & Stool

This is a 40-minute sketch of a chequered piece of cloth draped over a wooden table and stool.  With my chosen vantage point I was able to see the cloth and how it fell in different directions as well as part of the table and stool.

To show that the cloth was not just falling vertical to the fall I picked out the way the chequered stripes fell using charcoal and by smudging in darker areas I was able to pick up upon the shadows and using my putty rubber picking out the highlighted areas. 

For me the main focus was to show the movement within this piece of cloth by focusing on how the chequered pattern changed and dispersed in all different directions. Some of the cloth was folded over one another creating hard shadows which differ from the areas where the cloth fell straight and the natural light from the windows hit it. The chequered pattern changed from horizontal to vertical as well as being in-between. I picked up on this by shading the patterns from the checks different from the ones going up to the checks going across.

If I were to do this drawing again I would have added in more detail to the folds and the creases within the cloth and I would also have added in a background to this drawing.