My composition is mostly made up of pencils. There is light coming from the top-right corner. The pencils are all pointing towards the bottom, except two on the top-left. I made the pencils a little too long, and I also stretched the picture compared to the original photo.
I used tones to show the shadows and reflections on the pencils. I think that I was able to achieve around eight tones. I used a tortillon to smooth out and smudge the shading to make it more real. I tried to re-darken the smudged lines so that it would be clearer. Smudging makes the shade a little lighter so that is another reason to re-darken.
I think it was a little hard trying to get the proportion right. The photo was on an A4 so it was hard to guess the size on the sketchbook. I overcame this by stretching the picture a little. In this project, I improved on my shading skills. I learnt how to smudge and blend. I learnt how to draw more realistically than before.
If I had to repeat this project, I would have taken more time on the empty place on the left hand side. That place was a little untidy. The place on the top left was a little off, so I would have taken more time to correct the angles and lengths of the pencils.
