Does anyone agree with me that the longer you stay without practising whatever craft or skill you have, the farther it gets from you? Well, I think this has been my case lately. Not to call myself an artist of some sort, but ever since I discovered my ability to sketch some basic inanimate objects, I've made good progress. However, the past month has been super hectic for me and I've barely had time to sit down to draw and further colour my work.
Today is different as I've had a lot of time to myself and I decided to try my hands at drawing three different fruits again. It felt great to be back at it, and I decided not to erase a lot. But midway, I could feel myself withdrawing from this whole artwork. I guess that happened because it wasn't turning out the way the objects looked in real time. Thankfully, I was able to get over my desire for perfection and just go with the flow for this week's Hive Learners #creative-sunday campaign.
Materials Used:
- A page from my sketchbook
- Drawing pencil and sharpener
- Set of coloured pencils
Process
As usual, my first step involved sketching out the first fruit, which was a mini bunch of bananas. You can see I wasn't too smooth with the line curves, but hey, it's just a sketch and you can keep going.
In the second step, I sketched a bunch of grapes. I started out by drawing the leaves and the stalk and connecting them to the fruits themselves so it looks like they have the perfect balance. Basically, I made rounded circles close to each other to get the shape of the grapes under the bunch.
Thirdly, I sketched this very imperfect half slice of orange. I drew the outer part first by making a semi large half circle, then I closed it at the top with a line and drew the inner segments.
Afterwards, I began the main colouring process. I used a bright yellow coloured pencil to colour all the parts of the bananas, followed by a brown shade for the top that held them together.
Then, I continued the colouring to the grapes. I coloured the cherries with a red pencil and used green for both leaves at the top. Then, I used a brown pencil to colour the stalk to give it that natural look.
For the half slice of orange, I used a mix of yellow and orange coloured pencils to create this look. Yellow first, orange second. I made sure the orange colouring was lighter while I went heavier with the yellow. I finished by leaving the middle part white to add a bit of style.
Final Look
I finished this mixed fruits painting by outlining the edges of the entire drawing with a black coloured pencil. I always do this to ensure that the painting has a more defined look and shape for each of the elements. Finally, I added my name at the top to serve as a watermark.
This painting right here symbolises beauty in every imperfection. You can see how imperfect the edges of some of the fruits look or how awkward the leaves appear, yet the beauty is not diminished. So this painting, for me, is a reminder that things will not always turn out the way I envision, but learning to appreciate the outcome makes all the difference, and I think I'll be doing just that from now on.
PS: This work was inspired by the fruits we ate this week at home. A plate of frozen grapes, three leftover bananas and one last orange from the basket.
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