Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Everyday Matters Challenge #112 - Something Fresh

I went to the grocery store last week and for some reason, the store sold out its eggs! I mean, how does a grocery store run out of eggs? So, this week, I visited again and found a carton of these beautiful local, fresh eggs. I knew I just had to draw them. I tried out a new charcoal pencil (Prismacolor, soft) and combined it with some graphite and used some blending techniques described by J.D. Hillberry in his book, "Drawing realistic textures in pencil." If you love graphite like I do, you must check out J.D. Hillberry's web site!

13 comments:

NEIL TOULCH said...

Hey J~,

Happy to have stumbled onto your blog.
I like this picture but I can't help feel that the egg shadows on the cup could use a stronger value.
At first I thought they were random shadows, but after a few moments it made sense that there would be "egg shadows" after all...!

Looking forward to more

Neil

Joan Y said...

Hey, thanks Neil! Yeah, I see what you mean! Thankfully, I am still working on the drawing and will take a stab at refining the shadows. Thanks so much for offering suggestions! It means a lot!

juj said...

happens here every time it snows...as if the most important thing to have in the house during inclement weather is eggs. weird.

beautiful composition Joan

Anita Davies said...

Beautiful tonal study.

Kathleen Rietz said...

Wow! Joan this is incredible. I have been so awed by your graphite work lately. This looks so real! I love the way the eggs are subtley refelcted in the cup.

Joan Y said...

Juj ... I know! I didn't bother to check if they still had toilet paper in stock. That's another thing that goes quickly!

Anita ... Thanks! I think I need a lot more practice so you'll be seeing more later. :)

Kate ... Thanks. This drawing is actually pretty similar to one I did when I was in college. I remember my teacher felt my shadows were too dark (like this one) because shadows on whites aren't ever black. What I didn't tell her is that I snuck into the art building in the wee hours of the morning and did the drawing in virtual dark ... with only one little light shining.

Tracy said...

joan this is just beautiful
and thanks for the link :-)

MD said...

This is such a beautiful drawing. I love your work.

Joan Y said...

Thanks Tracy and Marie! Have a great weekend!

Serena Lewis said...

Absolutely beautiful, Joan! I love the softness of it.

I must look out for that book as I love working with graphite too. J.D. Hillberry has a couple of excellent tutorials on his website too.

Joan Y said...

Thanks Serena! The tutorials are great aren't they?

suzanne cabrera said...

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

Was there some kind of natural disaster on the horizon? Can't believe they were out of eggs...

Anonymous said...

Hi there!
I've really enjoyed surfing your art blog- keep up the great work. I love the wonderfull smoothness of these eggs coupled with the slick glossy finish of the mug. You've got a gift for graphite!
Your painting of the green tea with cookies was awesome too- gorgeous colors!

Have a great day :)
Christeen