Drawing 2 - Some More Progress

I've made some more progress in between a few other things that have been going on these days. With the arrival of Spring comes yard work and any other number of things to keep me busy, but it's all good! 

Having completed the flat area at the top of the drawing, including its big curved highlight, the first structural element has been added that cuts into the composition from the left. It ends in one of the three circular features that anchor the drawing. The fasteners connecting this pivot point provide the initial opportunity to "pop" something off the surface of this piece, as the shadows give a sense of depth to the elements. It's interesting to note how metal handles light differently from say wood or other materials with organic surfaces. Even areas of rough metal pick up light in unexpected ways, often reversing the rules so that in shadow there comes a bright highlight from a reflected source of brightness. You can see this on the bevel ring of the hex nut, but if you look closely there are other edges inside the shadow that brighten in a similar way to pick up the softened edge of the rounded corners. There's no shadow cast from this top element on the flat surface above it as there's too much space between them. At this point that makes the drawing seem awkward, but I'm betting on it working out as I continue... fingers crossed.

I'm looking forward to the next parts of the drawing as they are heavily shaded and will lift the top areas up to give a strong feeling of depth. I get a real kick out of it when this happens - it never fails to put a smile on my face - quite magical even though I've done it many times before.

Here are the latest progress photos. I hope you enjoy them!!

Drawing 2: Back at the Board

After a long visit with my friends Paint Brush and Paint Roller, I happily returned to the drawing board this afternoon and reacquainted myself with my pencils. I always have a moment of trepidation after a longish time away from drawing - there's a sense of wondering if it'll work out like it did last time. It didn't seem to take long to get past that though, and I made a good start on the second drawing in the series.

I've altered the composition to remove the grease fitting on the top most connection point. It was too directional and gave me a sense that the drawing was upside down, which it is, but I don't want that to be the impression of the viewer. The rendering here at the start involves a set of layers that will build up the flat area across the top. It's a challenge to make a basically smooth flat surface interesting, yet if one looks closely there's plenty of texture on the surface to work with; it's just subtle.

Here's the first snapshot of the work in progress. I'm laying down the second layer of detail using a 2H pencil. The first layer was laid down with a 5H - the hardest pencil I work with these days. The harder the pencil the lighter the mark it makes.