This weeks project was definitely going to be a lot harder than the previous weeks. My only experience drawing by hand was confirming that it is not a skill that I’m not proficient at let, alone one that comes naturally. Rather than rustle up a round piece of fruit I opted to utilize a hacky sack that was nearby. I spent a modest amount of time mulling over how to represent the knots and the subtle shadows between them. I eventually devised a method utilizing dots and filling in between the dots with a darker shade of the knot’s color. The end result came out a little better than I anticipated.
The spoon was a challenge as the reflection of the light on the spoon highlights subtle scratches and distorted images from the immediate surroundings. My spoons have small curves in them in multiple locations which complexify highlights and shadows on the spoon. Placing shadows under the spoon and the hacky sack was quite easy and I found the method of adjusting the opacity of the layer very easy to get the desired effect.
Finally, I used the gradient tool to create the background to accentuate the way the shadows fell in the original picture. After the image was adjusted in size per instructions I was surprised how well it turned out despite my ham-fisted attempts.
