The art course that I'm working through includes lots of student drawings to give people clear encouragement; if these avowed amateurs can produce such nice pieces then there's hope for everyone. I often draw inspiration from these examples but one in particular caught my eye - a drawing of a wine glass. I've often looked at such pictures and admired them as the subject always appears so difficult with all of the reflections, refractions and distortions. This glass, the one I selected, is no different:
Under a strong light it's riddled with weird features and strange shadows; in some ways it doesn't even look like it's been made properly! Nevertheless I decided to give it an honest go and to try and get the elliptical proportions right for once by estimating the relative dimensions (e.g. it seemed to me that the mouth of the glass appeared twice as wide as it was tall). With these key shapes in place my plan was to shade a middle tone across the whole glass and then to decorate this with highlights and shadows as required - which led me to this result:
From a distance this looks pretty good with the rim standing out and lost lines around certain edges adding a sense of realism; also with the shadow in place and some distortions faithfully rendered it really does look like the actual glass. Unfortunately yet again I've managed to get the key shapes wrong (the rim and the base) and this throws off the rest of the picture. It's annoying but at least I know what shape I really need to physically practice until I've got it down pat - circles, ellipses and anything related.