A challenge that I faced was working with ink and making the shadows look like shadows instead of just dark blocks. My set up and the light source caused still life to have a lot of overlapping shadows with varying values. Once I stepped away from the painting one night and came back to a more dried product, I realized that the best way to make the values and transitions look good was to build it up slowly. Even the lightest values, instead of going straight for that dark shade or light shade, I continued to slowly build upon it and I think that helped a lot!
I loved Gray’s composition. Her set up and items used really spoke to me because i used similar items in my first still life but the way she arranged it with a proper focus point really made the painting stand out.
I can’t remember whose piece it was exactly but I believe it was maybe the second or third presented. I loved her use of lines to make the wood look more realistic. I used this technique in my new drawing as well to portray a wood coffee table
I did take a risk by trying to also add the bottom of the table and cloth that it sits on. Parts of this looked good, I believe like the leg of the table behind gave it a little depth; however, I as unable to get the cloth to look like it was cloth.
Some helpful comments were related to working with my viewfinder. How to better connect your items even outside the viewfinder so that the drawing looks more complete instead of unfinished. Though that wasn’t my intention, I was going for exactly what was in my viewfinder but when it was pointed out, it did make the drawing look unfinished.
Another challenge I faced this assignment was definitely 
working with or finding the right perspective that spoke to me. I feel like by the end of it I just picked a certain view to go with but I wasn’t satisfied. I liked the items I chose, they had memories of travels for me or my younger memories with my dad. But the perspective and maybe arrangement as well just fell flat to me. Redrawing these items, I hope to find a better composition and perspective to work with.
Hi Shivali, this a great reflection, and I am really excited by this second version of your drawing too! There is some clarity in the depiction of the objects that you resolved more thoroughly, and the new orientation of the page is interesting.
I am impressed by the way you talk about your process in arriving at this drawing and the lengths you went to find a setup you liked. I think the theme is also great – it is always a joy to draw things that hold meaning and memories for you!