Observing Natural Forms

From the new project we have been set for only this week I've decided to look at some artists work for inspiration and how I can go about with presenting my drawings of natural forms.

In Giovanni Civardi's book, Drawing: A Complete Guide, He talks about graduation of tones on leaves and shells. He mentions how leaves show very fragmented chiaroscuro where there would be small light parts contrasting with the small shadowed parts, suggesting the fine textures of the leaf. He also talks about the shell's shiny surfaces and how we have to observe it to work out how the light reflects on smooth and rough surfaces. I found his comments and drawings rather useful and will definitely be thinking back to them in future when I do more observing drawings as shading using very dark and very light tones help with showing the structure of the object - also try out cross hatching as it might make drawing tone quicker.
 

In both of these drawings you can see that both objects include folds and twists creating strong shadows with were the light source can't get to. Even though they aren't heavy in detail it manages to show enough information of the objects appearance and form.

I also found Leonardo da Vinci's observational drawings on plants rather interesting as they held a lot of information. For instance in all three of these drawings I found in the book 'Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Works' he would include and make clear all the features of each plant in one drawing with accuracy: leaves, fruit, flower, stem, thorns, etc. This is something I had to try and achieve with my own drawings, however I found da Vinci had presented the plant well by only drawing a segment of the whole thing - so instead of drawing the entire plant he only took a section of it which includes all of its features. When I was drawing from a plant I got overwhelmed by how busy it was, whereas if I focused on just a section I would of found it a lot easier- maybe try breaking part of the plant off.

 The two plant drawings done in red are much more fuller studies compared to the study of the pea pods, and also show much more information to the whole plant rather than a section, whereas the pea pods focuses on the appearance of different angles of one object. It also looks at different stages of opening. If I possibly have time I could possibly try observing flowers which close up - compare the differences.