Analyzing complex forms - umbrellas and perfume

The above drawing of the umbrella is with charcoal and is more practice with sighting angles and proportional drawing of shapes and angles. Initially I was unhappy with the results I'd achieved with this and once again lamenting my poor ability to draw things in proportion, but now on second thought, although not absolutely correct, the form is not too bad (well, at least it looks like an umbrella !) The spokes are actually angled reasonably correctly I think and most of the problem is with the canopy shape. Anyway, the project did stipulate it was a "complex" subject...

This exercise in charcoal had a suggested time limit of an hour or so, though I did this one in about 30 minutes. It was an exercise to basically review all the elements I've been practising on a themed still life. As you can see, my chosen "theme" was things I could find in my bathroom cabinet. I tried to think carefully about how things were placed and which parts of the picture were to be emphasised and which parts suggested. I tried to let the drawing develop over the entire paper and not to focus on completing only one area at a time. I tried to leave the background empty to draw attention to the details of the objects.

Finished chapter on gestural drawing ! Feel loose and fluent (?!) Bring it on Smagula ! Let's see what's next !