Shadows bis

The inspiration this time is
the shadow of my lamp. The yellow tone of the tableau comes from the sun through my window shade.

I chose to draw 3 shadows either produced by my ceiling light at night (right) or by the sun at slighlty different times in the afternoon (left).

Again, on a textured paper that I pinned directly to the wall, I traced the contour of the shadows and completed the drawing with woodless graphite pencils and sticks.

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  The artwork by itself

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  With 1 more shadow and the lamp

Without the shade, the scene is much brighter. I like that we can better see the colored and white reflections on the white wall.

I will further experiment with shadows but this time on white paper and will somehow include the reflections.

I hope I’ll discover something unexpected that I didn’t even think about while imagining this new series.

Shadows

I have always been fascinated by shadows.

In 2015, I worked on a series of drawings entitled ‘Me and my shadow’ that featured both the shadows and the subjects (see my post of March 25, 2019 in Drawing/Still life).

This time, I decided to draw only the shadows created by the lateral light from the late afternoon winter sun, as shown on the photo below.

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On a textured paper that I pinned directly to the wall, I traced the contour of the shadow and completed the drawing using a variety of woodless graphite pencils (Bs and Hs). The drawing is the actual size of the shadow.

My intent is to have a mysteriously-shaped drawing that is completely recognizable only with the subject.

Below, two different tableaus with the drawing.

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On my next post, another one of the same series but this time with one of the lamps and multiple shadows.

Hope you like it!

How it all started

My mother used to order drawing lessons by mail a long, long time ago.

I was about 10-11 years old and, bored, decided to try the exercises my mother was doing. We both realized that I was able to draw what I saw, like she did. Never studied in art, it just came naturally.

Some of my first exercices (graphite on journal paper)

I drew on and off until I was about 20 years old. I drew the following around 13-14 years old.

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Landscape and still life in graphite

This is a self-portrait I drew around 17 years (graphite)

The human body has always been one of the most interesting subject for me and it still is. To this day I don’t really know why it fascinates me, but does it really matter?

At some point, I started studies in medicine thinking that I would feel the same fascination. I quickly realized that it is not the mechanics of the body that I’m curious about, but the whole human being: body, posture, state of mind, personality, etc.

Eventually, I studied in photography. A few years ago, I finally found the time to attend some art classes to learn the basics of drawing, different techniques and experiment with different mediums.

It took me all this time to understand that I was given a gift. I now know that it is essential for me to draw and create. It is how I best express myself, my feelings, my believes.

To this day, I still dream of being a full-time artist.

Me and my shadow

Sometimes cast shadows are as interesting as the subjects themselves, as demonstrated in these two examples below.

In the first one, I opted for darker shadows for a more dramatic effect.

In the second one, I liked that the shadows on the left almost looked like snails.

Both drawings in graphite and colored pencils.

Background punch

I sometimes like to draw subjects on white paper and digitally modify the background. Just a few clicks can change the mood – so many options.

Black and white

What can I say! For me, black and white photography is the most beautiful, as it allow us to better see the lights and shadows.

On the right, a partially developed photography in the darkroom, no digital manipulation.

I feel that drawings with vine sticks and compressed charcoal have the same quality.