A sketch is a hastily executed drawing, a rough design, a plan or draft.

Sketching is useful to quickly get a rough idea of what I will be up against and what I

need to do to overcome whatever task that I have been assigned. My process essay

is about sketching a kitchen utensil, specifically the kitchen shears. And I am

required to outline the process of the sketching of said utensil and all the steps I

have made.

The kitchen utensil I have chosen is a pair of kitchen shears. The reason why

I have picked this utensil is because how often I used it. They are used just like

scissors but to cut vegetables and other food. At first glance, they looked like

scissors, but there were some significant differences. The shears had larger handles

which is used to accommodate more fingers for comfort and force. I was reluctant to

lick the shears as I was afraid that I might cut my tongue off I but did it anyways, it

tasted like just about and clean metallic or stainless steel object, namely spoons and

forks. Also, the shears had no distinct smell. On to the sound it made, they go ‘snip

snip snip’; I liked the sound though I had no idea why.

I did not have an ideal workspace to work in as I had a tiny table and my

computer peripherals were in the way and there is nowhere else I could place them.

It was not a big deal because I was already used to working in small spaces since

primary school. After lightly sketching the outline of my utensil, I began

experimenting on different types of pencils for shading. There were pencils ranging

from 9H to 8B. I ended up using a HB pencil for the initial sketches a 2B pencil for

shading as I did not have many choices. Other stationary I have used is a ruler to

draw straight lines, and a camera to capture still shots so I can view the utensil from

a consistent angle and to avoid drawing a deformed pair of shears.

I had explored further options for shading; charcoal. Just like pencils, there

were different forms of charcoal. I had borrowed some charcoal from a good friend of

mine so I could experiment with it. I used a smudgy and soft version of charcoal and

was able to create very balanced and smoothly transitioned shading, but I quickly

scraped the idea because I failed to consistently produce the same results and it

looked really awkward. Lighting played an important role in this sketch as it,

combined with shadows, visually defined the object. First and foremost, I determined

the source of lighting by shining torchlight onto the object in a dark area, Then, I was

able to accurately pin point the angle and direction of the shadows. I recreated my

sketch whenever I made any mistakes instead of erasing because it looked really

messy, unless the mistake was minimal. I also think having a cleaner sketch made it

look like I actually had a pre-defined goal instead of making up steps along the way.

This sketch only took me a little less than two hours, but I had wasted a lot of

time preparing for it. Having the need to gather all the tools I needed was mind

boggling as I did not have instant access to any of them. I heaved a sigh of relief

after completing the sketch because I knew that I had one less thing to worry about. I

would love to do one of these assignments again because I could learn how to draw

better which is great for future projects that require drawing, but I would definitely say

no to another essay.