On top of the far-left countertop, in the corner of the kitchen, is where my family keeps a french press, a coffee bean grinder, a bottle of olive oil, and a bottle of balsamic vinegar. When looking for something to draw, I thought I would do a still life. Mostly, I wanted redemption: I was unhappy with the way my first still life turned out. I realized that this corner of my kitchen was perfect because I look down upon it everyday. I intentionally chose a perspective so that the viewer would be looking down upon these items, like I do when I make coffee in the morning. For the perspective, the foreshortening was extremely difficult to deal with. In terms of value, I outlined the highlights, and then I used hatching and crosshatching in order to put some darkness into the drawing. It was fun to experiment with a pen, a tool I don’t use very much. I’m happy with the composition because I love extreme perspectives. At the same time, I prefer having harsh, dark, almost cartoon-like lines, which makes things stand out. I feel like the cross-hatching makes things muddy and it’s difficult to identify individual items. I feel like nothing stands out because you can’t control the weight of pen marks as much. I’d love some feedback on this.
This is an amazing drawing Anibal. I really like the style you used to go about creating value and you have created a very clear sense of depth. All of the marks on the page seem to be deliberate and without a second guess which really pulls me into the drawing and makes it feel genuine. Additionally, the contrast between the lines that follow one another with little overlap, that make up the wall and table, compared to the erratic seeming lines, that make up the bottles and press, help draw my focus onto the items on the table. I think the largest suggestion I could make would be about the border, it is very uneven and can make it hard to focus on the image. I actually think that the border matches the style of the drawing well, however, it may benefit from a more rectangular border.
This is a really cool piece. I think you did a great job with the perspective, and that lends itself to capturing a super cool and unique composition. I immediately was able to tell that you are looking down on the objects in the frame, which I know is really challenging to pull off so good job on that. I also think you did a great job with the hatching and cross hatching in order to capture the shadows and shapes of the various bottles. Additionally, I think you maintained a really good balance between using too many hatches and cross hatches and too little. The parts of the piece that are not covered with hatches do an equally good job of portraying shape and shadow as the parts that do, and that is very impressive. The only criticism I have is that I think the contrast could be made a bit more severe. I know you were using a pen, and therefore that is a constraint on line weight, but I think a darker line In certain areas could outline the shapes more (like you mentioned) and accentuate shadows.
Great job on this, Anibal, and good comments from Max and Ben.
You raise the question, and so does Ben, whether this goes far enough or might go farther. This kind of drawing has many possible points of completion. This could be considered done with fewer things in it (though not much) and it could be considered done with a lot more, darkening values and so forth.
But this, for me, is a very satisfying stopping point. I like the way you’ve used value accents (darker values) along various contours to distinguish one object from its neighbor, but you’ve used them selectively and wisely. They do a good job of leading the eye around the composition and also balance one another (and the composition) nicely.
It’s up to you, of course, if you prefer a more graphic, bolder outline style, but the virtue of what you’ve done here is kept the forms open to one another and to the light and space around them (reinforced by that very distinctive and consistent hatching style, as Max points out) to unify the whole. Bolder outlines tend to divide objects from their neighbors, but given what you wrote about this corner of the kitchen being like a little “oasis” (my quotes)–as is my coffee corner, BTW–I prefer this treatment to something bolder.
One of your very best drawings of the semester–nicely done.
On top of the far-left countertop, in the corner of the kitchen, is where my family keeps a french press, a coffee bean grinder, a bottle of olive oil, and a bottle of balsamic vinegar. When looking for something to draw, I thought I would do a still life. Mostly, I wanted redemption: I was unhappy with the way my first still life turned out. I realized that this corner of my kitchen was perfect because I look down upon it everyday. I intentionally chose a perspective so that the viewer would be looking down upon these items, like I do when I make coffee in the morning. For the perspective, the foreshortening was extremely difficult to deal with. In terms of value, I outlined the highlights, and then I used hatching and crosshatching in order to put some darkness into the drawing. It was fun to experiment with a pen, a tool I don’t use very much. I’m happy with the composition because I love extreme perspectives. At the same time, I prefer having harsh, dark, almost cartoon-like lines, which makes things stand out. I feel like the cross-hatching makes things muddy and it’s difficult to identify individual items. I feel like nothing stands out because you can’t control the weight of pen marks as much. I’d love some feedback on this.
This is an amazing drawing Anibal. I really like the style you used to go about creating value and you have created a very clear sense of depth. All of the marks on the page seem to be deliberate and without a second guess which really pulls me into the drawing and makes it feel genuine. Additionally, the contrast between the lines that follow one another with little overlap, that make up the wall and table, compared to the erratic seeming lines, that make up the bottles and press, help draw my focus onto the items on the table. I think the largest suggestion I could make would be about the border, it is very uneven and can make it hard to focus on the image. I actually think that the border matches the style of the drawing well, however, it may benefit from a more rectangular border.
This is a really cool piece. I think you did a great job with the perspective, and that lends itself to capturing a super cool and unique composition. I immediately was able to tell that you are looking down on the objects in the frame, which I know is really challenging to pull off so good job on that. I also think you did a great job with the hatching and cross hatching in order to capture the shadows and shapes of the various bottles. Additionally, I think you maintained a really good balance between using too many hatches and cross hatches and too little. The parts of the piece that are not covered with hatches do an equally good job of portraying shape and shadow as the parts that do, and that is very impressive. The only criticism I have is that I think the contrast could be made a bit more severe. I know you were using a pen, and therefore that is a constraint on line weight, but I think a darker line In certain areas could outline the shapes more (like you mentioned) and accentuate shadows.
Great job on this, Anibal, and good comments from Max and Ben.
You raise the question, and so does Ben, whether this goes far enough or might go farther. This kind of drawing has many possible points of completion. This could be considered done with fewer things in it (though not much) and it could be considered done with a lot more, darkening values and so forth.
But this, for me, is a very satisfying stopping point. I like the way you’ve used value accents (darker values) along various contours to distinguish one object from its neighbor, but you’ve used them selectively and wisely. They do a good job of leading the eye around the composition and also balance one another (and the composition) nicely.
It’s up to you, of course, if you prefer a more graphic, bolder outline style, but the virtue of what you’ve done here is kept the forms open to one another and to the light and space around them (reinforced by that very distinctive and consistent hatching style, as Max points out) to unify the whole. Bolder outlines tend to divide objects from their neighbors, but given what you wrote about this corner of the kitchen being like a little “oasis” (my quotes)–as is my coffee corner, BTW–I prefer this treatment to something bolder.
One of your very best drawings of the semester–nicely done.