People who are new to still life probably place their emphasis on drawing the main objects. This is not really probably the best line to take, as normally the shadows are what will enhance your drawing.
What will you need for your shadowing? Not much I might add, just a few basic items and you can soon see the benefits. The shadows made can be fascinating, with your pencils and rubber, mounting board and a single sheet of cartridge paper.
A backdrop for your work is needed and the board will have to be big enough to hold the shadows you wish to transfer to your paper.
Place your objects in front of it. Now, for example, it could be a bowl of fruit, a bottle of wine with a glass, or even a coffee cup with the jug. What you can really do with now, is a spot lamp to cast shadows say from the right side.
What you need to do then to help you, is to create box squares, a bit like graph squares. These need to be about three inches square and drawn on to the backdrop. You then need to do the same thing on the cartridge paper, only very lightly, and the boxes need to be half the size, one and a half inches using a 2B pencil.
Before you start drawing, you need to ascertain how the shadows fall on the screen. They can be seen quite easily as they will be dark.
What do you do now? Sort out your positive and negative objects. The negative being your objects and the positive being your actual shadows. So go for drawing your shadows first.
Shadowing will give your picture more interest. From the far left of your drawing, draw your shadow outlining. Noting how the shadow outline crosses over your boxes. Once you have done this, you can transfer this to your paper using a 2B pencil.
You may not get it quite the same, so don't get disappointed. Carry on filling in your shadow outline. It is surprising, the forms your picture takes.
Once you have completed your shadows, you can very lightly rub out some of your boxes that are within the shapes of your shadows. Only rub lightly though, or you will ruin the paper surface.
The dark shadows now need filling in. Take care not to smudge your work. To alleviate this, place a white sheet of paper underneath your hand. Don't worry if you have white spaces amongst the dark shadows.
Filling in shadows I would do with a 6B pencil and cross hatch it. If you haven't read about this method in one of my previous articles, this is where you draw a series of lines across one way, followed by lines going down over them. In other words, to fill in, don't just scribble across your paper.
Fill in all your outlines of your back objects, slowly using a 2B pencil, making sure that it is sharp. Then rub out your boxes with objects inside. Now you have both positive and negative shapes.
Still using the 2B pencil, on the darker parts of your objects, do some light cross hatching. Do not try to hard, try it on the edges for example.
You can finish your drawing with the 2B pencil with light hatching. You do not want to overdo it and get mixed up with your shadowed work. Remember, you need lighter tones in your work.
What will you need for your shadowing? Not much I might add, just a few basic items and you can soon see the benefits. The shadows made can be fascinating, with your pencils and rubber, mounting board and a single sheet of cartridge paper.
A backdrop for your work is needed and the board will have to be big enough to hold the shadows you wish to transfer to your paper.
Place your objects in front of it. Now, for example, it could be a bowl of fruit, a bottle of wine with a glass, or even a coffee cup with the jug. What you can really do with now, is a spot lamp to cast shadows say from the right side.
What you need to do then to help you, is to create box squares, a bit like graph squares. These need to be about three inches square and drawn on to the backdrop. You then need to do the same thing on the cartridge paper, only very lightly, and the boxes need to be half the size, one and a half inches using a 2B pencil.
Before you start drawing, you need to ascertain how the shadows fall on the screen. They can be seen quite easily as they will be dark.
What do you do now? Sort out your positive and negative objects. The negative being your objects and the positive being your actual shadows. So go for drawing your shadows first.
Shadowing will give your picture more interest. From the far left of your drawing, draw your shadow outlining. Noting how the shadow outline crosses over your boxes. Once you have done this, you can transfer this to your paper using a 2B pencil.
You may not get it quite the same, so don't get disappointed. Carry on filling in your shadow outline. It is surprising, the forms your picture takes.
Once you have completed your shadows, you can very lightly rub out some of your boxes that are within the shapes of your shadows. Only rub lightly though, or you will ruin the paper surface.
The dark shadows now need filling in. Take care not to smudge your work. To alleviate this, place a white sheet of paper underneath your hand. Don't worry if you have white spaces amongst the dark shadows.
Filling in shadows I would do with a 6B pencil and cross hatch it. If you haven't read about this method in one of my previous articles, this is where you draw a series of lines across one way, followed by lines going down over them. In other words, to fill in, don't just scribble across your paper.
Fill in all your outlines of your back objects, slowly using a 2B pencil, making sure that it is sharp. Then rub out your boxes with objects inside. Now you have both positive and negative shapes.
Still using the 2B pencil, on the darker parts of your objects, do some light cross hatching. Do not try to hard, try it on the edges for example.
You can finish your drawing with the 2B pencil with light hatching. You do not want to overdo it and get mixed up with your shadowed work. Remember, you need lighter tones in your work.
About the Author:
The creator of this "Help" guide is contemporary artist Anna Meenaghan. Anna makes amazing contemporary abstract art and runs an online art community where you can find more helpful articles about painting techniques. It is also where I showcase my own art. Comment by Michael Bruckner.
No comments:
Post a Comment