Week 2: Homework

Drawing Household Objects in Negative Space

This week's homework was to draw several household objects using negative space rather than the actual outline of the item itself. This was intended to really help you study the form of the object and only add tone for later 3D effect. Looking at negative space also helps with getting the proportions of an object correct.

The 4 objects I chose were: a bottle, a mug, a cactus and a pair of earphones. I was a little limited with what I could choose as I live in halls, but I tried to make my objects varied in shape and size.

I found the task challenging at first but once I trained myself to look mainly at the negative space and not draw the object itself, it got a lot easier. I immediately found that my objects became a lot more proportionally accurate so therefore appeared more realistic and solid. Once I had got the basic outline down using negative space, I went in and added tone and background details so that the objects did not look as if they were floating! The tone was another challenge, to capture the light on the object and make it look 3D.

I am pleased with all of my drawings which I feel do appear mostly quite realistic and proportional, as this is something I've identified as a weakness. I tried hard not to overwork the tone and make them too heavy, and I think I achieved this as they still hold a clear boldness without getting lost in shading. I do think perhaps I could have used less tone to keep the focus more on the negative space outline, although I don't think it makes the images weaker -  just not quite as minimalist as I intended. For example, in the drawing of the headphones you can see the negative space is more apparent which is considerably more striking.

I also set myself challenges with my arrangement of objects, so I feel I learnt more about perspective and depth through this homework. One of the weaker aspects could be my composition of the drawings on the pages, which I maybe could have thought about a little more deeply. As I went on this improved slightly but there is still blank space around each image which makes the drawing look a little lost on the page. In future I will remember this and try to fill the page more, or at least make the placement more effective.