Reflections and Shadows

I started doing the exercise on reflected light and got carried away with the amazing reflections and shadows. The reflected light was in the shadows and each of the objects was reflected in the other objects Not only the objects but I found myself, rather distorted, in the images. The surprise was the stem of the goblet which was reflected in the base and then carried on into the shadow.

I have not got the ellipse of the goblet right. It is tilts down to the right.
Also the shadow of the small sugar bowl is too dark at the base.

What I loved about it was the contrast between the very sharp edges compared with the soft tone. What I found difficult is that I saw so much colour and had to limit myself to charcoal. I also found it difficult to get the definition and sharpness using  stick of charcoal. The putty rubber was too clumsy and I would have like to use something finer.
The fascination with these shiny objects is that they have no colour at all and everything is a reflection.
I am reminded of the law of Yin/Yang which in Chinese is the shady side of the hill and the sunny side of the hill. They are both connected and cannot exist without the other and yet they are fluid and move according to what is happening.Where there is light, there will always be shadow. They cannot be separated. I also found that looking at the background in order to get the tone right, depended on what I was focusing on. It was not all the same tone but changed with the light and also my perception.
This also reminds me of what is reality? Is what we see always there and is it real? I saw the distortion of the jug in the goblet, I was one shape in the goblet and another in the jug and if I look in the mirror I am some body else.

Check and Log


I found no difficulties at all separating cast shadow from reflected light, only difficulty in drawing it accurately.
The shapes of the objects is defined by the light and shadows and there was nothing else to draw but these shapes. It helped to get my mind out of the way and just look very carefully. Each shape and tone had to be compared to the next one and each space had to be seen as part of the whole.