Day 9

Another drawing challenge and one than nearly made me cross-eyed. The colouring in was great fun using Stabilo Woody, the shadows with Graphitint and the waterbrush mentioned by Sian which I picked up on our latest wedding trip to Derbyshire -- a super art shop in Matlock.

The crumpled check shirt I had to go over several times before the grey tones showed up sufficiently. The drawings hint at movement and finally after a week back at home my mind's settled enough to concentrate fully.

Day 8

Again the cockle shell. This drawing is a combination of paint on a dry brush with pencil for the horizontal lines. There's no doubt about it drawing really develops observational skills. I found myself scribbling lists of things like the quality of the edge, the ridges, highlights and shadows and most obvious of all the shell's fan-shape - a little store of inspirations for future projects.

I've been away for a number of days (yet another wedding) and found this task a real challenge. First the area around the pear stalk. Really the area only consists of a series of curved and straight lines of varying depth and distance apart. I chose 8B pencil as I did for the basket, which I drew under a strong light to emphasise the shadow. This was very frustrating and took several false starts. The shading again needs to be stronger and though I made the sketch bigger than the original hoping to make it easier, I don't feel I've managed to convey an impression of the curved main struts with the cross-pieces weaving over and under them. For the cockle shell I tried paint on a dry brush as Sian has done, but again the result has limitations.

Day 7

There's nothing like looking at a drawing on the blog - spake the convert - to give you a perspective on your work. I took this charcoal pear back for a second go to strengthen some of the shading and still feel I could do more. Following Sian's tip about using a strong light to show the undulations on the fruit I think the shading is more honest, though as ever there's work still to do. I realise, too late perhaps, that the lit side needs a much more delicate touch, the barest trace of a line. This "very quick" task is a slow burn with me.

I wasn't looking forward to the unforgiving nature of charcoal, especially as the only one in my cupboard was Size 4 -- whoever bought that? However it's produced a much more muscular drawing and quite surprised me though it does seem a little elongated.

Day 6

The pears are still looking good and I've tried drawing them together using artificial light, then this morning a single pear out in the sunshine. Judging by the scan I'm still not putting enough dark tones into my sketch. I also feel I need some guidance about where the shading goes -- there's an element of fabrication in what I'm doing making the sketch look less than realistic.