Gone to the Dogs - Day 26

Spirit Eating an Apple  

An apple is a special prize

- the dogs' senses are on high alert     

 Casper and Spirit knew there were apples in my hand before I got anywhere near the dogpen. If apples smell good to humans, imagine how incredibly good they must smell magnified tens of thousands of times in a dog's specialized olfactory system.

Apples 7

Apples 7

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Graphite on paper, 6.5" x 10"

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Apples sliced horizontally, across their equators, show the core of the apple as a star. The star is a group of pods gripping the apple seeds in place with just a tiny bit of room for expansion when they sprout.

With daylight from the window raking across the flat cut surface, you can see the structural details of the apple, too, reinforcing the pentagon geometry of this fruit, and you can also see the lights and darks of the paper underneath the apple.

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Apples 6

Apples 6

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Graphite on paper, 6.5" x 10"
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The surface of the apple has dappled color markings, as well as tonal gradations from the apple's spherical shape. It also has highlights and shadows from lighting, and more lights and darks from reflections.

Graphite leaves a grey mark on paper, and the softer the grade of graphite, the darker grey the mark is. The trick to drawing with graphite is to use different grades of graphite in order to achieve a complete tonal range that can represent all the lights and darks needed in the drawing.
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Apples 5

Apples 5

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Graphite on paper, 6.5" x 10"

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You don't think of still life arrangements as having movement, and you don't think of apples sitting on plates as giving gestures, but they do. This is a gesture drawing of an apple, selected out of a sheetful of apple gestures.

So what gesture does an apple have? An expression of weight, of sitting balanced on a base point, of mass, of a spherical form, and overall an expression of how the fruit grew from the core out to the surface. That is the gesture of an apple.

Apples 4

Apples 4

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Graphite on paper, 6.5" x 10"
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This somewhat lopsided apple shows highlights from two windows and reflections from around the room and also reflections from the shiny plate it is sitting on. The shiny plate acts as a mirror, too, reflecting the apple back to itself. The only true shadow areas are underneath the apple where it touches the plate, and at the boundaries of the spherical form.
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Apples 3

Apples 3

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Graphite on paper, 6.5" x 10"
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An apple cut in half yields two hemisperical forms each with a flat plane revealing the inside of the fruit. Cut from top to bottom, the apple's core shows a seed pod, with its distinctive oval shape, and tiny protective capsules holding the tear-drop shaped seeds.

Drawing the seed pod is a challenge because it is so small and so intricate, and while its lights and shadows can be suggested with graphite, the marks must be accurate to make the flat plane surface look like something is resting underneath.
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Apples 2

Apples 2
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Graphite on paper, 6.5" x 10"

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The spherical form of an apple displays beautiful gradations of highlights and shadows. The apple's peel is shiny and reflects its surroundings, so the highlights and shadows are changed.

Drawing a spherical form in graphite could become a mechanical job, but with the irregular form of the fruit and the reflections from the surroundings, observing and recording the apple becomes a lot more interesting.

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Apples 1

Apples 1

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Graphite on paper, 6.5" x 10"

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Apples are great to draw.

Apples are generally round, which gives the artist the challenge of rendering lights and darks on a spherical surface, except when they are cut open, which provides another challenge of rendering planes in perspective.

Apples seen in bright light catch highlights and produce cast shadows of interesting shapes and tonal ranges, and apples placed on a shiny surface give the artist an additional set of reflections to puzzle over.

But when the drawing is done, the benefit of drawing apples is that you get to eat them!

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An Apple A Day 25 ... Acrylics - Layering

Apple on a light surface, acrylic layered painting.
Acrylic on paper, 7 in x 10 in.

An Apple A Day 24 ... Acrylics - Layering

Apple on a dark surface, acrylic layered painting.
Acrylic on paper, 7 in x 10 in.

An Apple A Day 23 ... Watercolor - Wet into Wet Washes

Apple quarters on a plate, wet into wet washes.
Watercolor on paper, 7 in x 10 in.

An Apple A Day 22 ... Watercolor - Wet into Wet Washes

Apple on a napkin, wet into wet washes.
Watercolor on paper, 7 in x 10 in.

An Apple A Day 21 ... Watercolor - Wet into Wet Washes

Apple on a napkin, wet into wet washes.
Watercolor on paper, 7 in x 10 in.

An Apple A Day 20 ... Watercolor - Wet into Wet Washes

Apple on a napkin, wet into wet washes.
Watercolor on paper, 7 in x 10 in.

An Apple A Day 19 ... Watercolor - Wet into Wet Washes

Apple on a plate, wet into wet washes.
Watercolor on paper, 7 in x 10 in.

An Apple A Day 18 ... Watercolor - Wet into Wet Washes

Apple on a napkin, wet into wet washes.
Watercolor on paper, 7 in x 10 in.

An Apple A Day 17 ... Colored Pencil Drawing

Apple on newspaper, colored pencil sketch.
Prismacolor pencil on paper, 7 in x 10 in.

An Apple A Day 16 ... Colored Pencil Drawing

Apple on a tissue, colored pencil sketch.
Prismacolor pencil on paper, 7 in x 10 in.

An Apple A Day 15 ... Watercolor - Brush Drawing

Apple on a tissue, brush drawing.
Watercolor on paper, 7 in x 10 in.

An Apple A Day 14 ... Graphite Drawing

Apple on a tissue in the sunshine, value study.


Graphite drawing on paper, 7 in x 10 in.