Still Life Number 2

For my second still life I am required to draw natural objects. Since it is fall, I set up some squash and onions for a initial sketch.




I used Conte Crayon since it seemed to suit the subject. I was pleased with the shapes of the vegetables and the relationships, as well as the shadows. The one squash on the upper right is not exactly the right shape and doesn't seem to sit right in the sketch. I felt that the still life was too busy, so for my final drawing I pared it down and added some fall leaves.



This time I used Derwent Pastel Pencils. I wanted to play with the oranges, browns and greens of the squash. I am fairly happy with this drawing. I chose to make the leaves less detailed on purpose, since I wanted to focus attention on the squash. I wanted to the leaves to be a light decoration framing the squash. The shapes and forms of the squash are generally good. I like the detail in the squash in the middle. The greens play well with the yellow and orange. I had trouble with the one on the right (butternut). The squash is quite plain and I struggled with the details of shadowing and feel that it doesn't work as well as I would like. The one on the left is a bright orange, and more textured than I depicted. I like my treatment of the oak leaves, which adds a lightness to the picture. I think it would have been distracting to make them more detailed. I worked on my line variation in that area and feel is works well against the heavy, smooth, shapes of the squash.