Sitting in the garden today I let my eye roam in the hope of finding something interesting to draw. I know that logically anything should be worth sketching, if I take the time, but I did fancy picking an object with interesting texture and shadow possibilities. Then my eye fell on this little decorative rabbit which, I guess, is meant to bring a touch of the wild to our urban garden:
Either way I figured that it would be worth a shot even if it proved rather tricky; there are no clear lines or shapes here and parts very much merge into one another. What is interesting is how much our eye infers from very subtle, almost non-existent changes in tone when deciding where there are actually boundaries. So the sides of the head are nigh on indistinguishable from the body behind (both on the lit and shadow edges) and I had to take care to remove my initial guide lines as they really stood out in my drawing:
As it stands this isn't the worst drawing that I've ever done but there aren't a whole heap of positive aspects either. I do rather like the eyes, with their blank, menacing stare, the object is properly grounded by its immediate shadow. But that's about it. The shading doesn't supply enough contrast, the body is lumpy in odd places and I've totally missed capturing the texture of the piece. Still all practice is useful and my aim here is to keep drawing come what may!