Today’s drawing lesson is on texture drawing. Prof Woon Lam taught us about the different levels of tonal value. I think I still need some time to recognize the different tonal value and shade accordingly. However, as I draw the above still life, I slowly got a better idea of how to see the tonal value.

Oh! One interesting thing I learnt today is that you cannot “shade out” the white porcelain bowl. Instead, you have to work on its surrounding to make the bowl appear. I struggled the most while drawing the bowl because I could not get the proportion right either. Prof Woon Lam taught us how to draw tangents to get the bowl shape and it is suppose to be easier that way but I still cannot seem to get it right. I will have to practice more on this.

In addition, Prof Woon Lam taught us that we should not stare at the image too long while drawing. I think this is because we might not be able to differentiate the tonal value if we stare too long. He even advised us to squint our eyes to draw the image. The above image was taken as I stepped backwards to see the outlook of my drawing. This is when I realised that if we are too near to certain things, we cannot see it. As I stepped back to view my drawing, I could see the texture clearer.

I believe that I have to continue practicing to understand tonal value better. Additionally, my proportion is not very good either. I do hope that as I draw more over the weeks, I can improve over time.