Sketching Volume: The Challenge of a Glass of Water

Such simplicity.  A glass of water.

How can something so simple be so very hard to draw?

I think there's a lot to be said for the complexity of the simple.  Water.

My mind starts spinning a little:  water, so easy from my faucet.  People who walk miles to find water.  Unclean water in so many places.  Innovators making self-sustaining wells for clean water.  Diseases carried by water.  Universal solvency.  Most of our bodies--water.  Most of our planet--water.

It is so hard to draw!

As are the container holding the water and the leather-covered journal into which the watercolor paints will go.  And I can hardly even talk about the scissors!  (Look close and you'll see the pencil lines from the many times I redrew these!  And we won't talk about the ellipses in that glass of water...)

Drew this as an exercise for Liz Steel's Sketching Now Foundations course, which I am loving and finding a good solid challenge.  Our task:  to sketch multiple objects as if they are transparent, sketching the entire volume of an object in pencil, over and over until we get the lines, the angles, the edges right.  Then ink the edges as the if the objects are again solid, leaving the pencil lines to help us learn from our mistakes.  Then add color.  Then add shadow shapes.   Great exercise.