Artist Statement

For my project this quarter, I did a still life drawing.  The two items I drew were grapes and seashell behind it.  I really tried to focus on the texture of the grapes and capture that in my drawing.  Something I want to communicate through my piece is the detail in the work.  It is something I am proud of.

When I was working on the rough draft of the picture, I just used a number 2 pencil to sketch it out.  When I wanted to do the shading I used a pencil with a different type of graphite.  They made shading the grapes much easier.  They were a softer touch and easy to draw the lighting of the grapes. This work relates to work I have done in the past because I have done still life in the past.  It was similar techniques I had to do to capture the look of the object.  

Our first nt was to sketch a rough draft in our notebook.  After working on that one we had to make another one before starting the final product.  The first rough draft I made did not get finished.  I only got half of the grapes shaded in.  The second one I was able to finish the whole thing.  The leaves and the grapes all got shaded in.  

An artist who makes similar work to this is Willem Kalf.  A lot of his paintings were still lifes of fruit.  His are all paintings and mine is not, but they have very similar shadings.  

http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/still_life/willem_kalf.htm

When I was coloring in the grapes, I started coloring in the circle really dark, and continued to get lighter and lighter till the tip of the grape.  I wanted to get the light bouncing off the grape, and I think that captured the look.  

It took me a few times to get the leaves of the grapes down.  In order to capture the lines in the leaves, I had to color in the leaves and stop coloring where the lines would be.  That is what gave it more of a realistic feel.   Something I am proud of how the shading on the grapes turned out.  I think the shading makes them look realistic.  

If I could change one thing about this project, I would want to start the second object earlier.  I forgot that we had to use two objects, so I only did the second object on the last draft.  

Something I learned during this project is multiple drafts is an important part to drawings.  Even if you like the first  of your drawing, you should do a new one to your skills and see if something comes out better.   You can always go back to the first drawing, but if you don't make new ones you have no chance to improve.