An interior composition exercise

Wanted to study our loft room or top bedroom or study. It has various uses and therefore names. I wanted to do some preliminary drawings before tackling this as a painting.

I considered what medium to use and decided on a Nero pencil, a standard HB mechanical pencil and my Lamy Safari fountain pen. They are my three favourites currently and so thought that would be a good choice. Think I am going to add a fourth, a selection of fineliners for different thickness of line and for their permanence allowing me to use watercolour potentially to add colour.

Almost face on for this composition and liked the long composition initially. However as I was drawing it, I lost interest inthe composition. I think there is to great a void in the middle and without Dolly making an appearance. that would have been worse. Drew this whilst sat on the floor and that gave me a different perspective. Don't think moving position would make a massive improvement on this or a subsequent drawing. Used the Nero carbon pencil but remembered as I used it how soft it was and how smudgy as a result. Not sure this is the choice I will go ahead with for the next exercise.

I think mechanical pencil or this Lamy Safari fountain pen are my favourite items to sketch with. This was the Lamy but the only downside is, there is no rubbing out. You make a mistake and it stays. Tend to start in the mid to background and when I add any foreground, those marks are visible through it. Somehow there doesn't seem to be enough depth to this composition either, something I generally do struggle with but hard to determine what exactly I am doing wrong. Enjoyed this drawing but as I worked through it, my interest in the subject matter faded. Great exercise though and every one of these I do, I improve on something, be it scale, placement or perspective.

This mechanical pencil drawing feels far more successful and in terms of depth and perspective, probably one of my best drawings like this to date. Working with pencil did allow me to make corrections along the way. This is not something I often do, I normally just leave my mistakes and hope by looking back I will improve from them. However seeing this drawing in a really nice state makes me appreciate making the corrections along the way. Really think this viewpoint suited the portrait approach too. Think I will have another go with this viewpoint again tomorrow, sat on the floor under the window, but widen the composition slightly. Want to include the doorframe to the right but not sure if thats going to add one element or distraction too many. Will know tomorrow once I've drawn it. Currently there seems to be something fantastical about the composition - to me the wardrobe and the large clock on the floor conjure up memories of fairytales. Will use the fineliner to redraw wider see how it looks as I prepare to tackle the next exercise.

Revisited again a day later with the fineliners. Sat back on the floor with the light streaming behind me from the big window.

This time I started with the skirting and architrave detail at bottom left and worked in and up from there. However looking at the finished drawing, I should have started around 4in lower down. Note to self for final drawing.

Interesting how much shadow can be seen in a photo but not too much was really visible to my eye.