Drawing Cloth and Fruit (challenge)

Here's my bowl of fruit and cloth drawing from one of Jen's (RookiePainter) still life photo:

I'm fascinated with drawing right now.  I'm learning to look.  With the small amount of time I have during the weeknights, I find I can do a drawing in under two hours.

I started out drawing the horizontal line in the background.  Then I drew an outline of the front of the bowl and then drew in the outlines of the fruit.  I sketched in the cloth and double-checked the overall placement of the objects.  I added a few details, used an HB pencil to darken the outlines, and then started the shading.

I've been starting out with my 5H pencil to shade all the dark areas.  Then I use 4H and 2H to darken certain areas of the drawing (that's away from the light).  I go all the way up to 3B for the really dark shadows.  I use my blender stub to smooth out the contrast areas and soften edges where needed.

I drew this using my Prismacolor Turquoise Art Pencils (5H through 3B) on textured Bristol paper.

Drawing Cloth (challenge)

A few days ago, I came across an interesting art site/blog.  Jen over at http://rookiepainter.blogspot.com/ is running an art challenge.  She posts a new picture/challenge every three weeks.  Many artists have produced some brilliant artwork in pen, pencil, acrylic, watercolor, and oils.  I'm starting out as a silent participant.  I've gone through her blog and picked out some photos from previous challenges to do my own practice drawings.  When I start to feel a bit more confident, I plan on becoming an active participant.  

Here's my drawing of a cloth still life:

I used Prismacolor Turquoise Art Pencils (5H through 2B) on textured Bristol Paper.  I used a blending stick to blend the values and to soften some of the edges on the cloth.

Thanks to Jen (RookiePainter) for her creative still life photography and allowing others to create their own work of art.

Three Pears Pencil Sketch

I thought I was finished with this pencil sketch until a brilliant artist/friend of mine suggested I "up" the contrast a bit.  The more I look at my sketch the more it appears to...not stand out as much as I thought.  The pears are not popping out of the paper.  I'm seeing a pattern here.  This appears to be the same problem I'm having with my paintings.  Not enough contrast.  Not enough "ooompf".

I need to dig out my "soft" pencils or the "B" range and redo parts of my sketch.

I just hope I don't overwork the sketch.  I suppose the worst case scenario...I get to do another one.  Just means more sketching/drawing time for me.  Sweet!

Another Pencil Sketch...a Rose

I've been trying to do something creative when I have a moment.  Lately, I've been very tired and so attempting to paint is out of the question.  I created "mud" with the last painting as I didn't have any creative juices.  I won't be posting a picture of that any time soon.

Instead of sulking on wasted time, paint, and paper...I've decided to spend some quality time doing sketches.  This trains me to see the different "values" of the subject I'm drawing.  This will definitely help me when I'm painting.  I seem to be struggling with "values" when I'm painting with different colors.

So, this evening I had an hour and drew this ingle stem rose:

A Pencil Sketch...Spiderwort Flowers

This evening I had some time to do a quick pencil sketch.  This will eventually be used as a future reference for a painting.

Spiderwort sketch