Another Attempt
Two nights ago I made another drawing of the candelabra and rosary, this time with a jade plant (I had burned the Christmas greens in the fireplace!) My thought was: Mexico, desert, succulents, blue sky outside and a suggestion of snow drifted against the window. Once the drawing was done -- and I try to do them quite fast -- I already felt in trouble. Instead of the relationships I had intended between the objects, each of them just sat there on the page, separate, and - I felt - looking bored with each other. Or was I unexcited by them? I went ahead and added some color anyway, on the somewhat-receptive sketchbook paper.
Better, but when I flipped back through the sketchbook to see the original drawing I was dismayed - it was so much livelier and freer (as is often the case with first attempts!) There were some passages in the new sketch that I did like, though: the right side of the terracotta pot, some of the rosary beads, the yellow birds at the bottom of the candelabra, thr dripping wax, and the interplay of the browns/oranges and those bright blues.
Once the drawing was photographed and in Photoshop, I was able to play with the cropping. Sometimes moving in on a pictures will force the objects into relationship, and improve the balance of the positive/negative space. (It's nice to be able to do this in the computer rather than with scissors!) The result below seems a lot better to me, but of course it's quite a different thing. What do you think?
