Exercise: Using markers or dip pens

I find this drawing of fruit doesn't look as natural as the coloured pencil drawings, and looks quite 'pixelated'. Though, where the pen has blended quite well such as on the red apple it looks quite good.

I used quite a low angle for the directional light in this piece to go with the dynamic, bold colours achieved by the felt-tips. This made a really long shadow at the front, with my intention of drawing the viewer in to the fruit. I decided to use water to help fade the black pen outwards like the shadow, rather than a constant black. This worked reasonably well but could have been neater with a grey felt-tip, perhaps. 

The drawing was made on cartridge paper and so the texture on the orange looks good as I left a few specks of white. Now I've finished the drawing, I find the green apple quite stiff looking! Maybe the black outline creates this effect. I'm quite pleased with the top part of the apple but the middle band doesn't look quite as rounded or smooth as I had hoped. The shadow on the lemon was very hard to achieve; it wasn't the best colour to use. The texture looks good on it, though. I probably should have left more white highlights on the top of the lemon to leave the yellows for the shadow. But because of the texture of the lemon, it does not need as many highlights as the shiny apple. 

I think I should have picked more pieces of fruit for this drawing, as the composition isn't very interesting. I like the angle of directional light and the dynamic shadow with the bold colours. But because I've used an even number of fruit, four pieces, two being apples and then the lemon and orange being of similar texture and colour, it isn't as interesting as it could have been with more. This makes the drawing look too structured and stiff; so to make it better: more pieces of fruit, more overlapping, and a background surface to be drawn in. 

Fruit using felt-tips pens (and some water)