This exercise was to take two simple objects, have them lit from the side and draw them using pencil. Beginning with a quick outline, then adding light and shade, then drawing all gradations of light and shadow that can be seen on the objects. Also including tonal gradations from light reflected from one surface to the other.
Page 1: White objects: plant pot and watering can
I chose white objects because I thought that I would be best able to see light and shadow for a start if not distracted by colours. The can turned out to be quite complicated to draw, I’ll choose a simpler object for the next try.
When drawing, I wasn’t able to leave out the steps of finding the positioning of the object on the paper, so although the instruction was to draw some quick sketches of the objects, I needed some time to draw my objects at all, used searching lines until I could define them more clearly on the sheet.
I chose an A3 sketchbook and found it a bit too small – requiring me to scale the objects down, in addition to the actual task of focusing on light and shadow. It also took me some time to work out the composition, I checked several positions for the lamp and orientations of the objects until it “felt right” – the arrangement and also the lights and shadows I saw.
When looking at the drawing, I think the objects are slightly distorted. I think this was a consequence of my drawing position, with the sketchbook flat on the desk and myself a bit bent backwards – although I was comfortably sitting, it resulted in myself looking at a flatter angle onto the sheet. The drawing looks less distorted when regarded in seating position. So it would be important for the future to maintain a drawing position which is more similar to the typical viewer position. I think this will help to get the proportions better.
I realized that during the course of the drawing, I became aware of more and more differences in tone, which I had not seen at the beginning, and which I subsequently integrated in the drawing. This drawing is only a light sketch, I’d like to do some more tries with different objects. But I wouldn’t have thought how difficult it is to choose “simple objects”.
Page 2: clay objects – two plant pots
For a second try, I selected two non-white objects because I liked their non-reflective surfaces, I thought they would also help to observe tonal shades from light to dark. I tried to remain upright while drawing to have less distortions, I think it helped. It would probably be better to have a drawing board which can be set at an angle, or use the easel. But for now, I wanted to remain with the arrangement on my drawing table.
I found it a bit easier to get the shapes right than with the first drawing, but my tones don’t seem to go well with the darkness of the lines. The tonal areas are correct in principle, but some lines and dark areas are too dark and seem to create “holes” in the drawing. It’s probably due to my attempt of emphasizing contrast on some details, this makes the drawing less coherent.
It’s as if line and hatching were in concurrence with each other, and in fact I’m doing a line drawing first, then adding tonality and the way I’m doing it doesn’t go very well together. Drawing tones for me is rather a painting technique, and the lines I draw have an artificial character in the drawing.
Maybe I should separate the two techniques, and get more practice with both separately: Line drawings and tonal studies? Another idea would be to study other artists’ drawings to see how they combined line and tone into something coherent.