I was having trouble finding a suitable set of objects around the house that were of similar form, size and colour so got a little … creative and decided to play with scale. The brief mentions using a white surface and dark background but I thought that would create quite a jarring break in the picture so opted for darker surface as well.
I arranged the objects into two groupings of three and two with cascading cast shadows. I kept some negative space between each object so no total overlaps.
First up, the one with soft graphite pencils. I filled the back and ground with a hatched pattern, using different orientations to distinguish between the two, and then used the same pattern to add detail to the objects themselves. The edge-to-edge hatching adds certain fizz but I find the overall results a little insipid, tentative. I could have been bolder with my mark-making.
Next up, the one with charcoal pencil. I prefer this – it’s less refined, rougher – but more muscular. The objects have more body. The one on the left has accidentally lost some weight – but that’s ok. I went quite dark in this one and maybe the horizontal surface is too dark so the objects aren’t as grounded as they should be – but at the same time, I like the effect – looming out of the darkness.
And lastly, the one with pen. I’m not a fan of the medium (yet). You make a mark and it’s there for good – it makes me hesitant. I’m still at a stage where I prefer an add-remove-add-remove technique. Also, it’s quite tedious filling in all that space with thin line. Did I just give up or did I deliberately omit any detail in two of the postive spaces – to add interest and illustrate the process? – a bit of both I think.
The set-up …
