Observing detail in natural objects

Having finally posted off my first assignment to my tutor, and having unpacked from my holiday in Wales, I thought it would be a good time to complete a couple of exercises for the next assignment using objects I had collected on my travels. I had picked up a good selection of driftwood one rainy afternoon at Port Eynon, and picking over it discovered a really knotty piece of what I think is sea pink (thrift) root. It really begged to be drawn in line so was perfect for the brief I had.

I found that having spent ten days using primarily pen in my sketching I was much more confident in using it here, although I did begin by lightly sketching the main shape in pencil in order to fit it on the page.

I think it would be interesting to draw this with tone, as the scale and detail would force me to maintain good points on my pencils- a practice I am notoriously lazy at!

Encouraged by my first effort, I turned to the shells and selected a mussel which had some barnacles attached. I couldn't decide which angle to draw it from, and remembered I had picked up some of the flat soft brown seaweed which looks like a type of soft coral, and having located it (still in my raincoat pocket), chose to arrange it with the shell.

I wanted to fill the page with it so drew a frame and used a perspective viewer to place the objects so that the top of the seaweed and the cast shadow reached the edge of the frame. I started with a line sketch before building up the tone. The shell had the darkest areas so I worked that up first before starting the weed.

I actually struggled to keep going on this, and it took two half-days to complete. I used 3B and 9B pencils, and an F which I found worked well for minor burnishing on detail areas. The cartridge paper I used was medium surface, and I think I could have achieved a better finish on the cast shadow if I had had smoother paper- unfortunately my local art shop is in the process of closing down and had no paper in stock.

Next up I think I need to try stippling- a technique I rarely use as it takes too long, and my eyesight suffers for it, however some of the shells I have will probably be very effective if drawn this way to highlight their surface textures.