1-Take a minute to think about your glass arrangement. The objects you choose should be a bit more complex. Instead of thinking of each as one shape, think of them as two or three. A tall bottle could be seen as a vertical rectangle with a circle on top, then a tall, narrow rectangle stacked on top of that. Lightly sketch your composition with these shapes.
2-Continue to include more structural details. Also check the shape of the values within the bottles and reflecting on the metal. You can include these swirls and curves in your sketch to indi – cate the direction of your values.
3-Work from the darkest area to mid-tones, lightly adding shadow at first. Go back into the darker areas, adding more pressure to build up shadow.
KEY-DETAIL PRACTICE
Focus on an area of glass that reflects something behind it; delicately
render the glass material and draw the warped object behind it. Render is an advanced word used for adding value or shading a piece.
4-Darken areas where objects meet the surface. Also, on metal objects you might see some darker areas near highlights.
TECHNIQUE STUDY
Metals have harsher contrasts; their darkest value and highlight are almost on top of each other. You may have to jump from highlight to almost black immediately, then gently blend that black out to a nice mid-tone.
5-Once darker values and mid-tones are down, lightly render out from the mid-tones with your light gray until you reach a highlight area.
6-Begin indicating the details with a light sketch. Add any textural designs now.
7-Gradually build up value. For patterns it’s okay to just draw lines, but for things that have form, build up and blend them into the structure’s base value- don’t just indicate them with dark lines.
8-Add textures and details that can be made just with short strokes. After looking at the overall piece, if some spots could pop a bit more, add a few darker shades to them.
