Fruit

"Fruits ... like having their portrait painted. They seem to sit there and ask your forgiveness for fading. Their thought is given off with their perfumes. They come with all their scents, they speak of the fields they have left, the rain which has nourished them, the daybreaks they have seen." - Cezanne

Cezanne discusses the personality of a fruit in that it has more character than just a still life object. A fruit is not perfect, it can (and will) rot, it gives off odors, and it has imperfections. In order to really portray fruit, all of these qualities must be portrayed.

In my sketch of a pumpkin, I attempted to capture its personality. This particular pumpkin was very round, but not perfect. One of my favorite parts of this pumpkin, and one that clearly demonstrates the characteristics that Cezanne discussed is the dirt on the side. This pumpkin was not clean, and I sketched some of the dirt and wear of the pumpkin found toward its upper right.

Hands 3

Another hand sketch...

This time, I sketched my hand in more dramatic lighting. I found this to be significantly more interesting as there were a lot more shadows to work with.

For example, my middle finger, ring finger, and pinky were all tucked under my hand. The lighting cast an interesting shadow on my ring finger that helps to demonstrate the shape and dimension of it.

I also chose to include the shadow that my hand cast on the table. It was extremely pronounced and defined. As I learned from my sketch in Hands 2, including detail in the space around the subject also helps to give the subject itself more definition.

Shadow and Light

Cezanne said, "Shadow is a color as light is, but less brilliant; light and shadow are only the relation of two tones."

In this statement, Cezanne evaluates the relationship between shadow in light. With shadow and light, essentially different tones, one can create dimension. Shadow and light can create a piece on their own because they can be used like color. While some need color to develop a picture or image in their art, others can simply use light and dark.

Here, I sketched a tissue folded under a bright desk light. The bright desk light would cause for dramatic shadows and the white of the issue would force me to use the light to illustrate the subject. It was a bit of a challenge to use only shading to show an object. One problem that I ran into was that the tissue was so light in weight that the desk light easily showed through it. Because of this, I did not get as dramatic of lighting as I would have wanted.

Regardless, this sketch demonstrates the relationship between shadow and light. It also shows how only shadow and light can be used to illustrate a subject.

Still Life: "It is so fine, and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas"

Cezanne once said "It is so fine, and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas." It is so fine because a blank canvas means the a new piece and a new beginning. It is refreshing. At the same time, it is terrible because it is so intimidating. A blank canvas means that the artist is back to square one. 

After reviewing Cezanne, the class put together some props for a still life. Ranging from paint cans to wires and scarves, we had a wide variety of items in our still life.

The initial assessment of the objects was to draw them very loosely in relationship to one another. Specifically, focusing on the negative space between the objects. Drawing the objects surround the subjects, but not necessarily part of the still life was also important to grasp the relationships. The table was especially important in this process.

 After the objects were roughly sketched, then detail could be added to each object.

While I was able to fulfill this process for the most part, there were still times when I would add detail to an object only to have to erase it because it was not in the right place.

The sculpture (shown in the sketch left) took a lot of time to get the shape and negative space right. I began to add some detail to this object.

The image shown  below shows the detail that I began to add to the coils and the surrounding objects. I found it much easier and that it looked a lot better, to draw the coils as a whole more that as individual pieces of wire.

The image shown right is a picture of the set up for the still life sketch.

In working on this still life I could really to relate to Cezanne's quote. Having something new to draw, and especially something so complicated and detailed, was exciting. However, looking down at a blank piece of paper and then looking back up at the scene that I was supposed to put on that paper was exhausting in itself. With each shape and detail the piece got progressively easier to handle. Though, as it got easier and got more detail, the "newness" of sketching the piece began to fade away.

Figures in Perspective

This sketch was done in one point perspective and includes objects and proportional figures.

My inspiration for this piece came from a park that I walk through every day to go to class. There are always a bunch of children playing on the playground and running around as well as many people walking their dogs. I also drew some rough buildings in the background to give the image some more dimension and show the surroundings.

Drawing the people in perspective was a bit difficult. While they look proportional, they also look a little flat. I challenged myself with drawing the proportions of children (since they are slightly different from the proportions of adults). They also do look sufficiently proportional, but again flat.

The swing set and trees were also drawn in one point perspective. The swings were a bit challenging but I like the way they came out. I also intentionally drew the trees in decreasing size so that they were proportional to their location in space.

This was not my favorite sketch, which is perhaps why it is incomplete. However, it was a good exercise for practicing drawing the figure proportionally and drawing the figure in space.

Hands 2

Drawing the hand holding an object was a surprising challenge in comparison to drawing just the hand. Before, I could focus on the details of the hand itself. This time, I not only had to focus on the details of the hand, but the relationship between the hand and the object (in this case a pencil).

I also attempted to show the hand in space by shading the area underneath the hand and drawing my sleeve. Adding these details made the sketch significantly more interesting and dynamic.

The thumb and index finger portions look a little washed out, but the severe lighting didn't really allow for much shading. The middle finger shows some relationship with the pencil at the tip. As stated before, showing the hand holding an object was a bit of a challenge, but I am happy with how this particular portion of the sketch came out.

Overall, the sketch came out pretty well. It is a little light and could have used more shading, but the shapes came out nicely.

Hands 1

For my first hand sketch, I am very pleased. The focus of this sketch was essentially just practice in getting the proportions correct. I began by using simple geometric shapes. Then, I added shading and detail to show the actual hand and fingers. 

My favorite part of this sketch is in between the index and middle fingers. The shading really brings out the detail. The ring finger and pinky seem a little bland as if I neglected that part of the sketch, but the lighting was so bright that they really were that bland. 

The biggest challenge in this sketch was trying to not move my hand. Even subtle movements would cause me to have to re-draw entire parts of the hand. However, overall, I am happy with how this came out.