ART100 Assignment 08
Construct a scuplture out of any materials you find, have, or decide to use. A spherical object must be included and must be partially or fully revealed. The sculptural form must include a wide variety of textures and line weight (string contrasted with wood, etc.) You should think about dangling or suspending parts of the sculpture to bring the concept of gravity into the piece. You will create a reductive drawing of the contraption using charcoal on Strathemore paper. Make sure you have a directional light source shine on the object. Include any shadows that are cast by the sculpture. Also, there must be drapery behind the object. Think about creating a directional flow within your composition using the folds in the cloth. Use the hierarchy of lights pulling foward and darks pushing back in your composition to separate object from background.




...and the above image is the result.
Know how we often say that the art looks way better in person? Well in this case, the photo looks better because I can't see all the imperfect blending.
:: nods head ::

Yes, I have done charcoal drawings before. But no, this is the first time I'm doing a charcoal drawing like this. Therefore, I can't expect perfection. I admit that the above is imperfect. I screwed up the porportions of the objects and tried to fix it as I noticed them without redoing part I already did. Next, I admit I got impatient and rushed through the last few hours (doing the mini alien clock and the big soup spoon).

Some of the instructions I didn't follow...
1) Dark sinks back and white pops forward. Despite not using that scheme, do you think the depth is still visible?
2) The closest thing to a spherical object I found is that big white chinese spoon using for making soup...
3) I shined my laptop monitor (with the screen on a white webpage) for the light source. And the sun was down so there was lots of contrast. Not sure if that was a good idea or not....What do you think?

How well did I render the table top? Due to the previous assignment, my teacher is expecting me to challenge myself. so that means I can't get lazy otherwise I won't recieve a good grade for the "improvement" grade. Therefore, I drew in the reflections of the objects on the table surface, as well as the table's wood design. Does it look like wood?

And how well did I do on the drapery? We were suppose to begin drapery last Wednesday, but it didn't happen. So the above is my first attempt. Does it look like drapery? (And the drapery is at an angle. The right side is closest while the left side is farthest away.)

I'm still having trouble blending dark areas smoothly, such as on my black DS and my black eye glasses case. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. ^^

Lastly, his drawing took an insanely long amount of time. Anyone willing to share their secret on drawing faster?

Thanks in advance for any suggestion you supply. ^^

[edit] Wed Sept 12, 2007
Wow, finally got the drawing back. It was put on display quite a few times...

Grade received: 10/10 = A

Date: March 2007.
Drawn on 18x24 inch Strathmore 80 lb. drawing paper with 6B & 4B compressed charcoals, kneaded eraser, chamois cloth, and an unknown densely dense white eraser. (The above picture has been cropped for gallery display.)
Time taken: 15 loooooong hours, over a 3 day span
(5 hrs for greying the paper and doing the background and drapery; 5 hrs on the DS and ceramic bottle; 1.5 hr on the table; 3.5 hrs on the eye glasses case, alien clock, and spoon)