Materials

 For the materials project I started by making a potion bottle. At this point I wasn't really sure what I was doing and how to do a material study, how to observe these things. As a result, the final product looked quite stylized instead of realistic:

After the feedback though, and after studying more glass and gaining some experience, I come to understand how the glass reflects the light and how the highlights work, adding the impression of reflectivity. I then added some to my potion to make it look at least a bit more realistic. 

Also, for this whole project I must admit I didn’t use a very organised workflow, but rather one that might be considered destructive. I painted the studies like I would do traditionally, since I am more used to traditional painting than to photoshop. This being a study, I believe the observation and the learning outcome to be more important, so I continued like this for the next ones too. 

The dagger ended up looking a bit more realistic, but it still held that stylized look that I was trying to avoid. 

During this study, I observed how the metallic surface is affected by light, reflecting it. It was quite similar with the glass in terms of characteristics, since metal is also reflective. Still, as I noticed while studying this material, it’s reflectiveness depends on some properties such as how damaged/corroded the metal is. The dagger, being made from new metal, reflects the light more, creating lighter portions, especially on the sharp edge. 

I then drew a spear and frankly, it was quite a disappointment:

It was simple and very stylized and didn’t reflect the properties of the materials it is made of. At the end of the studies I noticed how much it contrasted with the rest of the more detailed realistic objects. 

I decided to use what I learned to make it look at least a bit more decent:

It might not be perfect since it was a bit rushed, but at least in terms of the metal blade it looks a bit better.

 I went on to study the next material: leather. 

It is of course not as reflective as glass and metal, but it can still be a bit shiny depending on the type of leather. Also, the light and shadow depend on the folds and creases of the material. This study went well and I managed to achieve the realistic look I was going for. 

Next, I continued with leather and drew a leather pouch, which I am really pleased with:

I then took on a challenge in terms of detail:

Here, I observed the subsurface scattering in the raspberry at the front. The light, penetrating the rasberry, makes the colours on that part seem very bright, like they are burning. To recreate that, I used a very saturated colour. 

I then went back to drawing metal, this time a more damaged, scraped one, so it was less shiny then the dagger.

Next I drew an hourglass and continued studying metal and glass:

The improvements when drawing glass are clear here: the highlights are more detailed, following the form of the hourglass. Some are stronger, depending on how the light hits the surface. The metal is less reflective, scattering the light a bit more, so the highlights are weaker. 

The next drawing was a challenge in terms of detail:

Next, I drew a lamp:

As for the other ones, the glass reflected the light strongly, especially since the light source is so close, and follows the form of the object. For the flame I used almost pure white, then added a yellowish glow with a soft brush. The metal was quite reflective too. 

This is the final outcome: