Homework 1: Indoors, "Full Value"
Here's the source. I wasn't actualy working from the photo--this is my house, I was sitting in that location. That said, I did use the photo to get the composition, and I took four reference points from it (a prominent feature in each corner) to start with (so you'll notice the drawing is quite similar, compositionally). But that was it; I put the camera away after those four reference points (and you can tell because I was way off on a few key features, blah).
Here's the first step, after about four (!) hours:
Here's the second step, this was about six hours in. At this point, the light was completely different (it was almost night), so I did bring the camera out now and then to gauge light levels--making a few liberal changes (for example, making the desk and chair much lighter to be consistent with the "frame" of the near wall):
And here's the end result, after seven hours of work:
I expected this to take maybe four or five hours. Sheesh! Anyway, I learned to like charcoal more after this (it's all about the chamois, soft eraser, and torchon, not the charcoal stick). Still not something I think I'll use when I don't have to. : )
I am moderately pleased. I think it "works" as is, though I'm a little disappointed at how "flat" it ended up (in terms of visual depth--the distance to the far corner you see there is considerable, and this view makes it look a few paces away). I got a few angles grossly wrong (the table that the TV is on, for example, should have been more foreshortened), and a couple of other proportions are off... I thought I knew how delicate perspective was, but this really taught me the effect of moving my head just an inch or two. It's one of those things that you don't really "get" until you work on something from life with serious depth.
Anyway, the point is, I actually learned a few things from doing this drawing. That's all to the good. So I don't much care that this isn't a drawing that you would want hanging in your house. ; ) It was an experience.
4 comments:
To pre-empt comments from others about why the perspective is screwed up... I see it now: I drew things too large, vertically. Because of their distance, they were quite small (and flat, of course). I exaggerated them grossly.
This reminds me of one of the first lessons one learns about drawing faces: the actual face itself is very small: a tiny triangle embedded in a large head. ...Of course, that's not caused by distance or perspective, but the point is the same: when one is drawing, the tendency is to fill the available space. But reality is largely composed of space, periodically interrupted by small points of interest.
I cleaned up my faces pretty quickly (and I consider myself reasonably good at them these days). I've learned this lesson with perspective. Next time I'll take that into account.
This was totally cool to look at / read. I'm glad you're sharing these, 'cause it's very neat to see the process.
This may, in fact, inspire me to put some more stuff up at repeated exp some time.
UPDATE: This was graded. I received a 98. (Much higher than I expected, before handing it in--then I saw the other student's work...)
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