An Apple, Watermelon, and Pear

Let’s draw some fruits, and let’s use graphite pencils to do it. The picture below is my attempt at using regular pencils as opposed to charcoal to render a still life.

Some thoughts about it:

• The shadow on the underside of the watermelon and the apple is too light. The lines on the watermelon were done using a 4B pencil, and the shadow underneath with a 5B. I would have liked to make the underside darker, but was afraid of losing definition.

• Fruits should be draw quickly. The pear, throughout its life under my gaze, was sagging. Fruits tend to rot as they sit out. This is probably obvious when I type it out here, but I really noticed it when the shape of the pear was changing each day I looked at it. The tongue like shape on the apple is also due to its slow return to dust.

• After spending hours on this piece, I rewarded my self by eating it. Not the piece, but the watermelon. It tasted about how it looks…

I am pretty happy with the way this piece turned out. It isn’t quite time to hang this on the wall, but it is a significant improvement over the spherical shapes from my previous post.