Apples and Pears

... or Onions, rather.

One technique I'm playing with at the moment is the "modelled drawing". Nothing to do with fashion, but "modelling" as in modelling clay. This is something I've read about in Nicolaides' The natural Way to Draw, one of the bibles of drawing, a present from Brendan a couple of years ago. I'm making very slow progress with it (I'm on page 36 of 221), but it's an excellent book to understand shape, form, gesture, movement, volume and weight. Nicolaides doesn't focus on drawing the exact lines, but rather on "feeling" the object, much as if you were sculpting it rather than drawing. I find it tough going, but I go back to it every so often, and I find things that make a lot of sense, like instructions such as this: "Press hard where the form goes back - press more lightly where it comes towards you". This is a way to "touch and feel" the subject rather than trying to draw the lines and shadows.

In these drawings I've tried various techniques, starting with lines and shadows, and finally venturing to modelled drawing. I like the apple in the top right the best.