Sketchbook Assignment: Basic Geometric Shapes Fill one page in your sketchbook with three different geometric shapes: sphere, cube, pyramid, or tube. Sphere: ball, egg Tube: toilet paper tube, mug, lipstick Pyramid/Cone: pyramidal party hat, ice cream cone, cone made of printer paper Cube: jewelry box, cereal box, etc.

Try shining a small desk lamp on your still life Use a variety of light and dark values Show highlights and shadows Avoid outlines: all areas should be “colored in” with value, except the brightest highlights, which will be the bright white paper color. Try the tortillions, but don’t over-blend.

Try shining a direct light on the three objects 1, 2: highlights 3, 4: shadows 5: reflected light 6: cast shadow

Try overlapping the objects for a more interesting composition.

It's not just the range of values on the objects that you want to pay attention to, you also need to watch where you put the shadow. Otherwise your sphere will float in space (as in the bottom photo), rather than resting on the surface it's supposedly lying on.

Explore the more complicated shapes by practicing their forms before you fill in the values.

Depending on your comfort and skill level, you may want to work with perspective. See your teacher for perspective hand outs.

Student Examples Your drawing should be done in pencil, ball point pen or any other black and white drawing medium.

Rubric Basic: Uses Full Page and three basic shapes Does not over-blend Variety of values from highlights to dark shadows Uses sketching lines rather than outlines Acturately represents basic forms Excellent: Uses dynamic sketching lines with energy and a variety of pressure Uses a combination of challenging forms Includes background information, cast shadows Uses perspective