Still life

Initially I started this project using glass items, which you can see above in the top left corner of my sketchbook. However, I got distracted I didn't finish and had to start over again in a totallly different house with completely different items! So, I used a selection of ceramic objects, which didn't have quite the same reflective properties as the glass ones but did have interesting shapes and textures. I used graphite pencil, which gives a lovely smooth line and is great for shading.

For the natural objects I chose an animal bone, a bulb of garlic, a small clam shell and a piece of drift wood. They all complimented eachother well in texture and colour (they were all quite light) however not so well in shape, so I struggled a bit to get the composition right. I used a brown pencil crayon for this drawing.

My opinion is that it is easier to suggest three dimensions on man made objects. I can't say for sure why this is but I think this may be because man made objects have a familiar form, a uniform, something that we are used to witnessing and so find easier to replicate. Natural objects are never the same from one to the next. The intricate details of the garlic bulb for example, where the light falls on a scrap of it's fragile peel, will never be the same as on the scrap next to it. And man made objects tend to have far more flat surfaces, or perfectly rounded edges for example, so we can almost second guess how it's shadow may lie on the surface under it.
I placed solidity in the composition by carefully noting where the light was coming from and therefore where the object's cast shadows were falling, either onto the surface they sat on or onto their fellow objects. To get a three dimensional or solid effect, light and shadow are most important.
I found that changing the compostion many times over made a huge difference to my approach. It helped me to look at the objects in a different light, from a different angle as it were. The way one jar reflected the other may not have been noticed had I not moved one more infront of the other, for example. The more you move things around, the more you notice and the more you get out of your chosen objects.
I decided at first to sit above, looking over the objects, thinking that at this angle I would get an advantage over the items, being able to see more. Then I moved the objects further away on the table, so that I was looking at them from a lower angle. It was at this angle that I chose to do the larger drawing, because the compositon was more pleasing - the drift wood stretching across the page to carry you eye, the shell in the background (I was worried this would look a bit like it was floating...) and the bone and garlic filling the space in the foreground. I still think the composition could be better, but think perhaps it is the objects themselves that don't quite work together. The shell is perhaps too small? The bone too angular?

Reflected light

The objects I chose were metallic and therefore very reflective. It was a bright day and I placed the objects on a white surface. I thought a white surface might make it easier to see the cast shadow. The reflection of the drinking flask can be very clearly seen in the metal surface of the tin, as the metals were quite different from one another - the tin very shiny, almost mirror-like, and the flask quite matt but still relatively reflective.The reflected light from the window created white bands across the objects, and these white bands in turn were then reflected between the two. They also cast shadows onto one another. I held the charcoal quite loosely and contacted the paper very lightly to get the the reflected light. I was able to make quite dark lines by brushing the paper firmly with the charcoal to create the darker cast shadows.

The question in the brief asks "What are the difficulties in separating cast shadow from reflected light and shade?" I find this really quite hard to explain in words - too absract a question!? Or am I readin into it too much? Will ask Emma.

The reflections of shadow and light are pretty distorted because of the curves of the objects, but I followed the contours as well as I could by looking carefully and marking the light areas by cross hatching very gently over the paper, or where there was shadowed areas, more firmly.

Research Point - Patrick Caulfield

Whether or not Patrick Caulfield was pleased with his categorisation of Pop Artist, his work without doubt had the credentials to fit into this bracket. He used screen printing techniques in the most part for highlighting commonplace objects, but using bright and often primary colours and black outline so that they burst out of the canvas. The viewer is almost certainly surprised by how striking such a mundane item such as a lamp, can be. (More info in my sketchbook.)
I enjoyed doing the piece in the style of Caulfield. It was a break from my usual style and it was an opportunity to look at the shapes of my subjects in a totally different way. I didn't need to focus on their every detail, just mainly their shape and shadow. It was fun.