Hatch and Crosshatch

This week's first exercise is titled "How To Shade". Prior to applying shading, one must be firstly cognizant of the light intensity and direction, and then of the areas of shadow and highlight. For instance, in my sketch the light is intense and above at about 10 o'clock. The right side is shadow, the left highlight. There is a bit of highlight on the belly of the pear that extends in somewhat to the right. Then also the darker shading of the cast shadow. (I think I missed a darker shadow about the middle and reflected light at the base of the pear.)

Once a shading plan is decided, one must pick the shading method or methods--hatching, cross hatching, graded shadows, or stippling. In the above sketch, I am using hatching and cross hatching. I used graded when I worked with a stomp in Sunday's still life. I think stippling is a very cool technique but not very effective with pencil. In fact, I'm not much of a fan with crow quill. But, I absolutely love it with a Rapidosketch. (Mine has seen better days and I'll be replacing it with a Rapidograph.)

Today, my dear friend Val Littlewood of the Pencil and Leaf blog included a piece on Nuncketest in her post on Slow Art. Also check out this post from earlier in the week where she kicks off the Slow Art celebration. And be sure you are not in a hurry when you head over because you will surely lose track of time as you enter her wonderful world of bees.