Further reflections

I took the opportunity whilst shopping to grab a few interesting still life items from the supermarket, as although we have lots of clutter at home most of it is either too fussy in shape or heavily patterned, and not ideal for practicising the tonal exercises I'm working on at present. I found a black cereal bowl, a delightfully shaped plain white jug, and  a silver-finished ceramic bird objet. Having dumped them on the table in the studio I decided to draw them just as they were, looking down at them while working at the easel. I worked in charcoal on A2 paper, starting with a toned ground and used a plastic eraser to lift out highlights.

Having more reflective surfaces than the tankard I drew earlier this week, I found it much easier to distinguish between direct and reflected light, particularly the ones inside the bowl thrown by the silver bird. I had the most trouble with the handle of the jug, it still floats a bit above the surface, and I've also just seen that the ellipse of the neck is too flattened in comparison to the bowl. No doubt I'll improve as I draw it more often and become familiar with its shape.

I liked the bird so much that I thought it would be fun to draw it next to something coloured. There was an over-ripe mango in the kitchen so I put the two together and opted to work with my new conte pastels to see how they behaved. The paper is a grey shade of Murano.

 Scaling down from A2 to A4 paper threw me off a bit and the mango shadow has nearly fallen off the paper. I tried to remember not to overload the surface and build up thin layers, and also tried to resist the urge to blend each stroke to within an inch of its life!

I'm reasonably satisfied with the way the mango came out although the red-yellow divide line isn't correct for the foreshortened viewpoint. The highly reflective bird really needed more fine blending and building up of definite hard edges to show its surface quality but the reflections of the mango (and my purple shirt) do at least describe the shape.

Anyway, the sun's out, the tide's out, and I'm going to take a break and take my sketchbook off to the beach now.