Shadows in the rain

Even Cerne Abbas in Dorset, UK was gate crashed by the torrential rain over Christmas, so this week’s drawings are inspired by items of furniture in the hired cottage. The complicated column of a brass table lamp was a definite shape builder test piece. When I got to the base, the drawing of the first rhombus reminded me that I am a cell biologist not an artist. Even if I could work out how to create an Ai perspective grid it wouldn’t have helped me work out the correct angle to recreate what the eyes see on a flat art board. So I drew three guide lines; left, right and front and blundered hopefully on. It’s not quite right somehow.

I was then inspired by the back of a chair in the bedroom which produced wonderful shadows on the wall even when it was raining outside! I created the shadow by copying the chair back then subjecting it to a -5^o shear, 45% reduced opacity and a Gaussian blur.