Part one - Assignment One

Assignment One


Preliminary Sketches

First drawing

Second drawing

This is what I decided to draw for my man-made objects drawing:

The sneakers are the same material as black jeans, so have a slightly rough texture. The shoes are red patent and are quite reflective. I liked the combination of textures and colours in this arrangement.

This is the initial sketch. I was pleased with how this turned out so decided to continue with this as my final drawing.

And here is the final drawing:

The texture, tone and reflected light turned out much better than I expected, so I am very pleased with this drawing. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the shoes to look shiny enough, or get the fabric to look the right texture on the sneakers, so I am happy with the result.
The only thing I'm not sure about is if the black sneaker is slightly too small. It is actually a smaller size than the red shoe anyway (shoe is 1 size bigger), but I'm not sure if the sneaker being smaller makes the drawing looks a bit like two separate drawings on the same piece of paper, rather than two objects in the same composition.

Reflection on assignment

• Did you do enough preliminary work before starting work on your final pieces?

I think I could have done more rough preliminary sketches to test out different compositions, however I was and still am happy with the compositions I chose. I think I should've done more experimenting with ink before I decided on that as my medium for the first drawing.

• Do your large drawings give an accurate interpretation of the still life groups? If not, what went wrong?

Yes, however neither of them have a background, and I wonder if on one of them at least I should have done a background rather than only the cast shadows.

• Did you make a good selection of objects or did you try to include too much? Would you change the arrangements of objects if you were to start again?

I think my selection and arrangement of objects for the first drawing was good and I wouldn't change this arrangement at all. In the second drawing I keep thinking I should've had one more object in the arrangement, but I am happy with the position of the two objects in relation to each other, so I would've had those arranged the same even with a third object.

• Do your drawings fit well on the paper or could they be improved by working on a larger sheet of paper?

I feel that with both drawings I should've made the objects fill more of the page, I think using a larger sheet of paper would've made that problem worse!

• Did you have problems with drawing or find hatching too difficult?

I think both drawings went well without any real problems. The only problem was with the first drawing, as I accidentally smudged the ink a few times, and I used too much ink in a few places and then was stuck with certain areas too dark. I had to change the tone in other parts of the picture to suit the overly darkened bits.