Being in Boston for only 6 months, this assignment got me scrambling for what objects/items best describe me. I didn't have my favourite childhood toy nor did I have a collection of things. However, what I had with me here were things that I needed for my day to day life or things that I handle almost everyday. I managed to also squeeze in a favourite game that my son and I love to play, UNO! Here is the charcoal rendition of my observational still life...
Critique:
I started out drawing the outlines lightly with pencil before going over with vine charcoal. One of the strengths of this artwork is that I managed to capture the both highlights and shadows present in the still life. Layout for the objects looks quite interesting and the dark sunglasses seem to really standout. Still life objects look quite proportionate and perspective captured successfully.
Areas that could be improved on is to not be afraid to use darker shades to create a more stark contrast. Some of the objects look slightly flat like the pencil sharpener behind the box of UNO cards. It has the same shade of grey. In my opinion, reflection on the lens of the sunglasses were not captured very well (it was challenging to identify the highlights and then using kneadable eraser to lift off the charcoal). Perhaps more can be done to show light reflecting on the lenses.
Great drawing and critique! Everything is well drawn and I would definitely encourage you to continue to do drawings from life. As I mentioned in the assignment, most art colleges look for observational work in portfolios, so it is something to push yourself to do. After the research you completed earlier, would you ever attempt to draw a still life adapting one of those styles? Perhaps using more line? Just something to explore :)
ReplyDeleteAs for your comments, I agree with you. You have a nice value range throughout the drawing, however you could have pushed the dark values even more to create more contrast. Additionally you created an interesting composition within the still life. However, although the arrangement of objects is well done, I wish you had enlarged the scale of still life a bit more, leaving less space surrounding the objects. Right now everything is right in the center of the page. So, even though the composition of the still life is interesting, the composition of the drawing is pretty central.
I agree that most of your proportions and your perspective are correct, except for one object. The perspective of the UNO cards seems a little off and the bottom of the box looks larger than the top.
Those are my main suggestions, I think for the most part you did a great job. And it's so nice to see your cast shadows!! They definitely ground the objects. I can understand your difficulty gathering personal objects, with not many around, but I think you created an interesting drawing of everyday things. What is the large "A" in the background? That's the only thing that has me stumped!
I'm happy to see that you are challenging yourself with the milk jug and the sunglasses. I actually think handled the reflection on the sunglasses well. As for the milk... what a challenge... right now the value of the milk is the same as the shadows at the top of the jug. Depending on your light source, I think oddly enough the milk probably should be lighter than the top of the jug. Can you remember? Often when we're drawing, even if the object is in front of us, we draw what we think we see instead of what we actually see. A technique that I have found helpful is to actually squint. This sometime helps identify values. Your sight will no longer be distracted by the details of objects thus allowing you to distinguish values more distinctly.
I would definitely love to try Danny Gregory's style of doing observational work. Will be very interesting and exciting. Thanks for the suggestion.
ReplyDeleteMy hubby agrees with you on the perspective of the box of UNO looking a little off. Perhaps that added to the little pinch of 'interesting' that art schools want to see...hehee
And just to comment on the milk jug. Yes, you are correct that the shade of the fluid should be lighter in the milk jug. But I actually had plain drinking water in that jug. I recycled my milk jug as a water canister for drinking and therefore forgot to mention that the fluid I was looking at and shading was actually translucent and not opaque white. Hope that clears up the confusion for you. I worked really hard on getting the shades to show translucency just right. Thank you for your encouragement. I am really proud of this work! :)