Shape and Form

The basic shapes exercise involved drawing the basic shapes which together make up most of the objects and environment around us, these shapes are: a circle, an ellipse, a square an oblong and a triangle. After drawing these basic shapes and in turn finding all the basic shapes within everyday objects and how they together make up the overall shape of that object, it is then possible to created the illusion of form, so a square becomes a cube, a circle a sphere, an oblong a cylinder and a triangle a cone.
I found this exercise to be very useful as it helps to train your eye to look at familiar and unfamiliar objects in a new way as you try to pick out the different shapes which make up the whole object. I also enjoyed practicing with giving these shapes the illusion of form and found that it was much easier than I first anticipated. By using overlapping shapes to create distance and using various softness of pencils to create shadow and light I found it quite easy to create a convincing 3-D shape.
This drawing of a pepper was done with a dipping pen and ink, using hatching and cross hatching to create light and shade and also having a completely black background helped to give this drawing a 3-D effect. Allowing the white of the paper to come through gave a stark contrast with the black ink, making the pepper stand out.