Drawing with Shading

Basic Shapes Drawing  - 11x14 - Graphite Pencil - February 2016

My Natural Science Class at State Botanical Gardens started last week.   Our first class was spent doing thumbnails of various arrangements of basic objects.  A lamp at 45 degree angle was used to create the shadows.   We had a cylinder, cone, cube and sphere.    After sketching several thumbnails(four to a 8x10 page), we used a proportion wheel to find the percent enlargement needed to make the drawing a 9x9.    We then traced the outline on an 11x14 hot press paper(#140).    I took a photograph of the arrangement before I left class so I could work on the shading at home.   What surprised me was the cast shadow I missed.    There was actually a much longer shadow that faded off the right side of the objects.    "Draw what you see" is harder than you think.    O. C. Carlisle is teaching the class.   She shared an article from the Journal of Natural Science Illustration.   One of the quotes from the President of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrations stuck with me.   "...we can learn to see by learning to draw."