Bottle and Clementine WIP 2

I managed to get a few hours work done on this yesterday, mainly on the bottle but a little on the background too.  I've not touched that clementine, in fact it has been covered over, most of the time, with a piece of paper to protect it from pencil dust.  On the glass, I used the pencils fairly loosely, in fact more or less as I would use pastels.  Holding a pencil half way down the shaft and using quick sketchy strokes helps me to resist the temptation to get into too much detail.  I'm also not fussy about sharpening the points too often ~ I only really need a sharp point when I want to draw a fine line.

A word about drawing glass

I've heard lots of people say that they can't draw glass, or they are afraid to tackle it.  I find that a bit puzzling.  When I 'draw glass' I don't really see it as 'drawing glass'!  After all, an object made of glass, especially clear glass, is merely reflecting the environment around it so what you are drawing are those reflections.  And reflections, to me, are just blocks, or shapes, of different colours.  All you need to keep in mind is the outline form of the glass object and you don't even have to draw that, just remain aware of it.  Someone once said it's wise to draw just what you see and not what you think you see.  I think that's really good advice and particularly appropriate when setting out to draw something made of glass.

Ok, so let's see if I can put some of my wise words into practice on this one!  Now that I've covered the paper with pencil colour, it's time to look at the whole thing, refine things and make adjustments.  I need to check those ellipses to see that they make sense and that the objects sit convincingly on the table.  I also need to refine those large shadows on the bottle to ensure they 'read' correctly colourwise against the background, they are rather too grey at the moment.  Oh and the clementine needs some work too!  And then, of course, there's the background to finish.... and lots of edges need softening .....