The main challenge I faced when doing the original big project drawing was how hard it was to use the homemade tools consistently or predictably, even after testing them. What helped was giving up the idea of perfection and letting myself react naturally to what happened with the ink. This resulted in my inclusion of a shadow in the drawing and omission of the details on a label, both due to ink spills. A risk I took was drawing the lines on the pineapple cup with a tool made from a fake nail taped to a pencil and then smearing them with a folded paper to try and create the effect of how the light sat on the bumpy glass. This did pay off, even if it did not have exactly the intended effect, it looked nice. Another risk I took was using a tool made from a wine cork as a stamp, even though it had not occurred to me to test it. This did not pay off the way I had expected, and ended up changing the way I was able to draw the label. Some helpful comments that I got in critique were that it was hard to tell what some of the objects were, or even to tell how many were present. This told me I needed to more clearly define the borders between objects somehow. If I were to do the drawing again in ink, I would probably use the nail tool again, and shade with a q-tip, which I didn’t think of until I heard some classmates say they used it.
Hi Teddy, Thanks for your reflection and I am sorry I am so late to comment on it. I think there is a nice contrast between your ink drawing and your pencil drawing – both of the same still life you set up. Part of the reason I asked how you took risks in your ink drawing is to show how inconsequential those risks end up really being! What better place to try something new than in a drawing, something you can always throw in the trash or start over! But by the time you start again you have all the knowledge and experience you gained with the previous drawing in your next approach! This pencil drawing definitely shows off your strengths – the shading is precise, convincing, and beautifully crafted. But there is also something to take from that ink experiment with the nail and wine cork! I am intrigued to see what a third drawing would look like where you combine ink and pencil. With this iteration, you might let the looseness and experimentation of the ink interact with the precision of the drawing above. Just something to think about as you move onto the next final assignments of the semester!