Week 3 - Material and Surface Properties

Since first year, I've liked drawing glass and metal since I could recreate the reflective surface (not perfectly though, I still have problems with putting in the right amount of contrast) without much of a thought. I enjoyed this task and got so engrossed in it that I didn't notice time passing and finished it in a day of working continuously. It still has its flaws and, after getting feedback, I will most likely have changes to do and some more contrast to add. 

This time I turned the image to greyscale from the beginning hehe.

I first drew some thumbnails to establish what the best composition would be. The second and third thumbnail were quite cramped, so I chose the first one. I sketched the objects and encountered problems in placing them properly on the page. I made the bottles too big, not leaving enough space for the metal pot, so the metal utensil  propped on it didn't have any space left on the page. I had to tweak that in order to not have to redo the whole sketch, so I moved it as if it were turned towards us, which had to be conveyed by using foreshortening (gave myself more work and had to pay for my mistake, but it was a good exercise).

I started to shade, focusing on keeping the right contrast, since it is a big part of conveying reflectivity in a drawing. At some point I noticed that the forms were starting to stray from the round shape of the bottle, making it look flat, so I did my best to fix that and pay attention to it during the process of shading by keeping the rest of the lines curved in the form of the bottle.

For the final stages I tried to strengthen the contrast, but I think it will need a bit more than what I added. Also the bounce light on the lemon might be a bit too strong now that I look at it. After I get feedback, I will make the corrections and update the final version in this post.

After getting feedback, this is the final result:

I did my best to fix the symmetry in the light bottle, though looking back at it I realise I could have done more in regard to that and it is something to keep in mind for future tasks. I also darkened the dark bottle even more, to brink forward the light bottle. I also got rid of the corner of the round glass object behind the bottle, as it was useless. I think the dark bottle looks a bit plain, so more highlights and contrast could have added more interest. On the other hand, I am really happy how the metal pot and the other object turned out as well as the overall composition.