Sunday 8 April 2012

Complete detailed Still Life drawing

This is my detailed Still Life drawing. It took around two and a half hours in total. Around an hour for planning and outline drawing and another hour and a half for shading.
The scene was setup in a dark room with three lights: A bright, point-like one inside the bowl, a soft, point-like light straight above the scene to brighten everything up enough so it is possible to draw. And another soft, but tall and narrow light on the far left of the scene - to add in a bit of light to the otherwise very dark back of the toy.
Not much about perspective in this drawing, the longer edge of the book shows very subtle perspective, so do the edges of the sheet under the objects.
The focal point of the image is supposed to be the donkey toy's nose, being brightly lit by the bowl light and being in strong contrast with the rest of the toy's body and the hole scene. There seem to be two implied lines, one at the toy's back and another one at the bottom edge of the book (actual lines really) that don't lead exactly to the focal point but manage to do a good job in keeping the eyes from going too far to the left and behind the toy's back. The donkey's nose also isn't in any of the rule-of-thirds points, but instead the detail in dents in the toy's leg and arm are put in a rule-of-thirds point making them a secondary focal point and spreading the interest around the drawing.
In terms of shading, the image has had its overall brightness reduced and contrast increased digitally.
There is a very nice, strong contrast of light and shadow with most of the top-left and bottom-right parts of the image being generally darker than the top-right. The area right above the bowl shows an interesting range of shades with parts directly lit by the bowl light and parts in deep shadow, but also an area illuminated by the reflected from the inside of the bowl light. There is a very soft shadow on the right of the bowl being cast by the tall light on the far left and softened by the direct light from above and the reflected light from the bowl.
Shading in the book successfully shows the tendency in old books where pages closer to the middle are pulled further inside the book. There is also a good representation of the cover's thickness and the offset the pages have from the edge of the cover.
The toy features some really nice, deep shadows in between its arms and legs, where any of the three lights can hardly reach. It also has some nice rim lights on its back and ear from the far-left light.

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