Still Life Drawings

 I had taken art classes since...kindergarten? It was too long ago.. Anyway, after coming to Singapore, I didn't have anymore art classes, and I really really missed them.
So in Sec 2, I begged my mum to let me join an art class to hone up my sketching skills, since I was really disappointed with the June assignment. Coincidentally, one of my mum's friends had started taking up art classes to learn Chinese painting and calligraphy, and she said that the teacher doesn't mind teacher pencil sketching too, so in the 2nd half of 2011, I joined the class under 陈老师 (Mr Tan Khim Ser).

(I didn't expect that I would be the only kid there though...><)
The class was really fun, and it was awesome talking to the adults as they would teach me a lot of things--we would exchange opinions on the works, and give each other tips..though most of the time it was them to me..and some of them were really good!~so inspired)

Here are some of the drawing from that class (my teacher always find random object lying around his house for me to draw..since he doesn't actually teach pencil drawings.)

This was the one my teacher made me do on the first lesson to see where I was, and helped to point put my main mistakes, such as the lack of contrast.

I had thought that drawing glass would.be very hard, but it was alright:)

Last pencil drawing at the class...my teacher had been convincing me to learn Chinese painting since almost when I first started class. So I finally decided that it was time to give in and start painting again!:)

Anyway, given the short period of time, I felt that I have actually improved since the start of the lessons. I was able to draw with more confidence, and one thing I've learnt from 陈老师 was that even when I'm drawing a real object, it should not be a total mindless replication, as that's what a photograph should do. A still life drawing should show both the appearance of the subject matters and be slightly expressive--it should be made alive by the pencils-such as by having lines that have varying thickness and so on. Also, a good pencil drawing should not be blended too smoothly (a good one should not be blended at all if there's no need for it!), because the shadings, the transitions between light and dark, the gradients should be smooth and controlled by itself, there should be no need to blend them.