Cross-Contour Still Life

A Cross-Contour still life drawing of a spring, a ball, a vase, and a metal comb in grey with white contour lines. The background is orange,

For this drawing, I wanted to do a still life with some negative space qualities, as well as use cross contour and shading to give the objects depth in an interesting way. First, I drew out the objects in the still-life, then I drew the contour lines in. After that, I shaded in the shapes, letting the graphite contrast with the contour lines. Finally, I filled in the background to contrast with the objects in the frame

I think the visual effect could have been better executed with a more consistent background color, as well as shaded the shapes in darker to make the white color pop more.

That said, I’m happy with the concept and now have something to further develop if I want to.

Cross Hatch Still Life

A still life of a round bag, garlic, two books, a ball, a candle holder, dropper bottle, and mug. All cross-hatched for dimension and value.

I drew this still life of various objects from my room by first sketching out basic forms. I drew the objects on top of these basic forms and corrected them as I saw appropriate, using sighting and measuring techniques. Finally, as I decided that the forms were correct, I added cross-hatching to add dimension and inform the shape of the objects. I used vine charcoal and conte crayon for the basic shape and form of the objects, and finalized them with a graphite pencil.

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