Still Life Composition

I was asked to make thumbnail sketches of a themed selection of objects with a pencil, pen, pencil or ballpoint using a technique such as hatching. I did three pictures and found that I was concentrating on the vertical and horizontal elements of the drawings. I tried to get the eye to travel over the paper rather than just the centre. I started off just drawing a few things individually and then put a group together. It helped me to construct the shapes more quickly in the thumbnail composition. To start with my three drawings were a bit big for thumbnail sketching so the second group of three were sketched smaller.

The first composition I felt drew the eye too far to the left as the gravy boat just made the picture a bit cluttered and I felt I wanted to shift everything to the right a bit.  The verticals worked and I liked the space between the jug and the rest of the objects.
The second composition I think I liked the best. The glass makes  interesting reflections of the objects behind and the stem of the glass draws your eye towards the jug and kitchen roll.  My only reservation is the amount of negative space to the right of the picture.

The third compositon is balanced but I think it is a bit dull.  It may have proved more interesting if I had turned the jug and gravy boat in different directions.

The first selection of natural objects I just felt it didn't show the objects to their best, It was as though  they were fighting one another.

                                                         Drawings 2 and 3        
  
The second composition was very horizontal and not enough height. the leak cuts across everything and dominates the picture. I think that this composition is the worst of the three.
The final drawing I think is the best. The aubergine gives height, the leak gives a horizotal plane, the pepper in front of the bananas breaks up the lines with its round shape. Colour wise there is no conflict and none of the fruit is lost on the plate. I like the mushroom off the plate it adds extra interest. For the first time I felt I had used the hatching technique in a more relaxed way and it worked.

I decided to draw some more fruit using the hatching technique and it is certainly becoming easier I am even begining to like using this method!