First semester, project 1: Intro to Still Lifes
A word here - this is a very image- and text-heavy post, because I wasn't sure how to break it up. But there are cuts, so feel free to skip around!
Since the beginning of June, the two classes a week I'm taking are devoted to drawing one thing as completely as possible, a still life for the first day, a plaster cast for the second day. We are applying all that we have learned since April, with the goal of making the picture as complete as possible.
We were given this setup:
This was chosen because you have the block and duckstand for perspective; metal, glass, brick and feathers for texture work; labels with lettering, also a form of perspective work; and contrasting colors, too, for tone work.
There are a number of things to consider when drawing a still life, beyond the obvious ones of perspective and relative sizes. One is the relative position of each object with the others. Another consideration is how they will fit on the paper itself - do you need to move it right or left to make it look better? In another post, I mentioned how it is undesirable for two objects to share the same line, since it throws the depth perception off. So from our position, are there any objects that share an edge? (In the case of this particular setup, it will probably be the bottles and the block). If so, we can deliberately draw it further left or right on the picture plane *because it really doesn't change perspective all that much* if we do so. However... We can't really move anything backwards or forwards in the picture plane, because it WILL change perspective, and that is MUCH harder to fake, since we are rank beginners. One more thing to keep in mind is that we don't have to draw every little object, which in this case, means the spoons and the garlic. I'll mention more about that later.
Also, there is a general process that they recommend. It can be summed up this way: To start from the outside and work in. I'll mention this later, but I'll cut to the chase here, and spare you folks a really long post. Essentially, get your outlines and perspective generally alright first, without worrying too much about internal detail, and then start laying down your tones, first lightly overall, then in more detail. When you get your outline down on the paper, that is when you can start worrying about the internal measurements. Here are some pics that illustrate the process:
Notice how, when the tone is being laid down, how the lines extend far beyond the actual boundary of the object.
Here's a tool that they have here in Japan, but I don't know what it would be in English, that can help the beginning still-life artist when they are trying to decide what the best position on the paper would be. It's called a "deskel" in Japanese, but I guess a viewing panel would be appropriate in English. It divides the paper down into smaller planes, to help you decide what area of the paper an object would fit. First, an example of how to use it:
You can also make your own, as seen here, with stiff board and string:
Please note that the thing you have to keep in mind if you decide to make one of this, is that it MUST be in proportion to the paper you're planning on drawing on. There are several different sizes here in Japan, all only slightly different by a millimeter or two lengthwise or widthwise. But when you are drawing on a large paper, like we are here (approx. 24"x36"), that little millimeter translates into several centimeters at that size! Of course, you can also just form a window with your fingers, but I've noticed that's it's mostly the experienced students and the instructors that can do that. Here's an example of it used with our particular setup:
this is a crappy photo, but you get the idea. For example, the center of the paper would fall around the feet of the duck, and green bottle would fall into the lower right 1/4th of the picture plane, just right of center. The majority of the duck's body would be in the upper left 1/4th of the picture plane, just left of center. The dark bottle would fall along the 3/4th's line, or thereabouts. The angle of the table on the left is sharper than the angle of the right.
I still use a deskel to some extent at first, but it's generally not recommended to use it all the time, because you will come to depend on it. Just use it until you've trained your eyes a bit, then depend on nothing but your eyes and your fingers, with the piano wire for backup. You can sort of see one of the instructors doing that here:
You use your pointer finger and your middle finger to form the 'window', and you can easily adjust your fingers to match the size and general proportion of your paper.
Okay, here we go!
The first day was spent just sketching the setup from different angles, to see which one appealed to us individually. These were about 30 minutes each, not very long, just enough to get the essentials down on paper and train our eyes to sense balance and position. Here are a couple of my redlined sketches. Click the pics to see them larger.
Setup 1:
and the redline -
Again, my tendency to draw things too close to the bottom, like they were sinking in an aquarium! Now, the instructors said something here that really threw me for a loop much later, when we actually started our drawings in earnest. They said one of the reasons this particular sketch is too low, is because they wanted room at the bottom for me to indicate the edge of the table. I asked why, and they said it's because at this particular angle, if you check the horizontal, the table is actually at a slight angle, and not truly horizontal. I'll get back to this later, but just remember it for now.
Setup 2:
and redline:
Sorry for the picture quality...
So after 3 different drawing positions, we were asked which place we wanted to draw from for the next 5 weeks. But there seems to be a problem... All 5 of us wanted the same two positions !
The Solution? The Buddha's Lottery. Or this thing here:
A very uniquely Japanese way of 'drawing straws', as it were, which is such fun I'll share it here. Draw a vertical line for each person who is participating, but DON'T write any names at the top just yet. At the bottom of each vertical line, write whatever it is they're drawing straws for. In this example, it was to decide who got what position. THEN, at random intervals between the lines, draw lines that connect one line with another. These can be horizontal, or slanting up, or slanting down, and generally the same number between each (usually 2 or 3).
So how you do it is this: When you're through drawing the connecting lines, HIDE the connections, and expose only the very tips of the vertical lines. Have each person choose a line (draw a straw, so to speak), and write their name at the top. Then, we can start the lottery. So, reveal the chart, and with a pen, start at the top of the first person's line and draw down til you hit the first line going sideways. Go sideways on that til you hit the next vertical line. Go down that until the next horizontal line, follow that line sideways til it hits the next vertical line, etc, til you get to the bottom of whatever vertical line you're on, and that's the prize! Here is one of our instructors setting up our little Buddha lottery:
And my prize for this? I got to pick first, hee-hee! ;D
So THIS is the setup I chose to draw for the next 6 weeks or so:
I liked this position because it appealed to my sense of the dramatic, and the fact it was facing right. I also had a little 'story' pop itself into my mind, which the instructors have said is important, because you want to decide fairly early on which element is your main actor, which is your supporting actor, and which are the extras. Remember what I said about objects sharing an edge? It's not happening here, but if you look at the hole in the brick, and the tall dark bottle, those edges are REALLY close together, so I have to be careful not to let them overlap as I'm drawing. The grapes slightly overlapping the bottle are okay, since that shows distance; same for the garlic and the glass. In other words, if the edges are actually overlapping, where the viewer 'knows' the edge continues, that's okay! But if the edges are merely touching, it's better to draw them overlapping, or else draw them slightly separated. *Whew*...
The instructors had suggested that we do a 30-minute sketch on sketchpad paper before we actually put our pencils to the actual drawing, but I don't work that way - if I'm going to draw the thing, I want to start on the actual paper, doing the actual drawing, not screwing around with a sketch beforehand, just to have to redraw it again. If the exercise is 30-minute sketches, fine. If it's a 4-week drawing, then I want to just go ahead and hop into it already. So...
Progress is slow. As in molasses on the shady side of an iceberg slow. So here is my progress, with random notes thrown in (for whatever they're worth!)
First sketch, just the rough outline at this point:
I'm laying out the outline, just to have something on the paper. It doesn't have to be perfect, I just need something on the paper to work with. First, I just really lightly sketch with a 2B (very erasable!), taking measurements with my piano wire to check proportions, angles, etc. The more you get down on the paper, the more spacial relationships, angles, proportions, etc., you become aware of. And it is at this point that I realize...
...that my duck's breast is too far back. HOW I figured this out is that a line drawn vertically through the middle of the glass will strike very nearly on the duck's eye. Here is diagram that shows some of the things I'm talking about:
The green line goes straight through the glass and hits the duck's eye. The pink, blue, and yellow lines show spatial relationships that have the same length, and so as you're drawing, you can check the proportions of your drawing. Now, whether I've checked them is another story...! For example, the yellow line shows that the length of the line from the duck's head to its feet is the same length as the horizontal line from the ends of its wingtips to the edge of its beak. That kind of thing.
And so I start measuring internal points like mad. It's around this time that the instructors step in and the conversation goes something like this:
Instructor: UR doin' it rong.
Me: wut?
Instructor: Don't measure so much at this early stage.
Me: ... *blink*... *blink*... "bu-bu-but.."
*sigh...* So, as I mentioned way at the top, they said to generally take proportions on the outer edges of the setup, not (detailed) internal ones just yet. Decide where I want the 'top' of the picture to be, which in this case is the duck's head, and where my 'bottom' is, and in this particular setup, where the feet will be. Basically, it boils down to the fact that if you measure too much at first, you just wind up freezing, being unable to move because you're so concerned with all these darned proportions and such. Instead, just draw lightly, trusting your eyes, occasionally using the deskel tool for general placement and the piano wire (or your pencil) for broad proportions and angles. THEN, when you've got a fair amount down, you can start to measure internal proportions in more detail.
Speaking of bottoms of pictures... Now remember the very first sketch above, where the instructors said for me to leave room at the bottom to indicate the edge of the table? Well, they said at THIS particular angle, it was NOT necessary to draw the edge of the table. If I remember correctly, it was because at this angle, the edge of the table would actually be parallel to the bottom of the paper, instead at a slight angle the way it was in the picture way above. The viewer could see that because the far edge of the table would be parallel to the bottom of the paper, so there's no need to 'fill in the information' - the viewer would naturally guess that the table is a normal shape. Whereas the earlier photo above, the far edge would be at an angle to the picture plane, and if there's nothing in the foreground to indicate the actual shape of the table, the viewer's sense of balance is thrown off. Anyway, my picture is finally somewhat balanced! Here:
I moved the breast over, and I'm trying to work on the block. Also, the duckstand was really hard for me, because it's got a curved edge all the way around; and combined with the legs and their spatial relationship to the dark bottle, it took a long time. However, this is the first time for me to draw a still life, so I guess it's not too bad. I'm a perfectionist, but I have to get over that! ;)
I'll post my further progress and the critique at the end of July, when class is finished and I have my summer vacation!