This assignment was fun, but I definitely had a harder time with it than drawing from a photograph. I set up my apple and spoon on top of an old steamer truck (with old tape marks on it) and used a work lamp to illuminate/cast a shadow.

Here’s my initial sketch and the palette I worked off of with varying opacity:

And here’s my final drawing:

When I initially staged my still life, I wasn’t thinking about having to draw in the old tape. I think it’s visually interesting, but I might stage future still life objects differently. I haven’t done much work in color (digital or analogue) that involved capturing the shine on objects before. I definitely struggled with it! I think I did the best job of capturing the shine on the middle of the spoon handle, where I painted in a little bit of the reflected color off of the apple.

I like working off of photographs better because it enables me to throw down lines where I want them with relative speed and ease. I can also pull the “natural” pallet from the image as my base point. From there, I can choose what I want to change about the image/coloration and take it in a different direction. That said, I recognize that part of why I might have liked drawing from a photograph more was because I found it easier in the digital format. This is perhaps a signal that I should practice more digital drawing from life.