Week 3: Still life - Finer points in composition

This week's session consisted of an in depth study of finer points of composition. All of the sketches below were done in pencil in the same period of time allotted. The first example is a simple arrangement, where the rule of thirds plays a good part in rapidly shifting the eye sight from the main focal point of the central object to the other areas of interest of the bottle and vase. The overlapping of the two objects creates the illusion of depth while the vase is not left out and becomes part of the implied curved line of the image because of the lines of the drapery. The presence of darker and lighter areas would have helped the composition gain depth.

The second picture area still tries to go by the rule of thirds and the composition offers nonetheless more unity than the first example. The objects are overlapping in order to create depth, the focal point quickly shifts from the middle vase to the flowers and follows an implied line down.

The third example is less appealing to the eye since is shows a degree of simmetry. The focal point starts at the flowers, then the areas of interest sought after are in the same vicinity, the implied line seems to go by the pyramidical composition. Some objects overlapping create the illusion of depth while others have touching lines and prove detrimental to the composition.

Week 2: Still life - Form and shape

This week's theory consisted in understanding shape and form, the latter being portrayed in our session's drawings. This first 3 minute contour sketch done in pencil is a simple still life arrangement, the objects seem to be connected -even the tall vase- through the lines of the drapery, the main focal point falls on the smaller objects and the eye follows up all the areas of interest on the implied line until the top of the vase.

The second contour drawing, done in 3 minutes in pencil shows the rule of thirds in action and the composition seems to be helped by the lines of the drapery since the objects have some near touching lines in the center. The eye is focused on the frontal objects then captures each object in sight in a half curved implied line. 

The third 3 minute drawing, done using charcoal is a negative space example of the last still life arrangement.

Week 1: Getting back into drawing

The first session's drawing was a mere refresher for the all the skills learned in the previous module, which included efficiency and effectiveness in the drawing process. Hence, the 20 minute sketch using charcoal was made going through all the known steps, from the planing stage to the last part of adding the details such as the pattern on the cloth, these facts can be clearly seen since the proportions seem to be correct and the shading seems to portray the desired volume effect. The medium used has been useful for creating darker tones but comes as a disadvantage as far as details are concerned.