I am starting one of the four summer assignments for my Studio Art Class which is to draw a still ife of 3 shiny kitchen objects using pencil. I was clueless on what objects to pick and soon I was just eager to start and picked a butter knife with a flowery print on the handle, a metal spatula, and a clear glass bottle.

And to complicate things I am attempting to draw these objects on a different surface than I am modeling them on. Well, it is actually easier to draw my planned surface of my tiled kitchen counter than my wooden desk but I can't model them on my counter. I already have the tiles laid out, the knife and spatula drawn out, and the outline of the bottle drawn but I am now stuck. I am having a problem trying to draw the distorted image coming through the bottle.

I really want to upload what I have so far to make this easier but the fact that the paper is bigger than the scanner doesn't make it easier to scan!

I hope someone can provide insight while I work on uploading it!

do you have a digital camera?
Paulette

Yes, using a digital camera and taking upclose pictures works wonders to get the picture on the computer. As for the drawing problems, you can also use your digital camera and take pictures of the subjects you are using and use a program to posterize them in black and white that will help you with the shading, if that helps.

Well, sometimes its easier for me to scan it and the quality of the image is so much better! So here is what I have so far. I had to get this in a couple images so I can focus on the bottle more. I am using charcoal paper because it was the only paper I could find for the right size of this assignment. So especially on the shadow from the spatula you can see the texture of the paper, even though it doesn't even look that clear on the paper but the scanner somehow captured it.

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So you see I haven't drawn anything in the bottle. I might try taking a picture of the bottle like you suggested. Also I need to shade the tiles a bit. I do like how the print on the knife turned out though.

I think it is looking awesome. You said that you do have the tile in the kitchen, I would suggest setting the bottle up and just looking at that one feature, the distortion of the tile. Then go back to draw it. I think when you look at it for just the one piece of info, it will be easier to see.
Paulette