Bottle, Shell and Conker – Still life Drawing Number Forty-five

Charcoal and white conte

Like the last drawing, this one is a little larger format, to accommodate the bottle. I’m still usually working sight size with these drawings, so a tall object means a tall drawing, at least compared to the majority so far in this series.

This one was a study in textures more than anything. I’m noticing more the different quality of highlights created by different surfaces. It’s largely a question of the tone, i.e how bright the highlight is, and its edges. A flat, reflective surface gives a bright, sharp highlight, like the bottle, and a softer surface gives a duller, softer one, like the conker.

I think that suggesting different textures is very much down to the quality of the highlights. I’ll be exploring this (among other things) more in the series of monochrome still life paintings I’ll be starting shortly.

This conker is kind of special.

Yesterday I went to a relative’s funeral, and found this conker in the grounds of the crematorium afterwards. I’m not trying to load this simple little drawing with meaning, but it was nice to include it in memory of my Auntie Phyl.

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