Drawing and Coloring a Snap Blade Knife
Drawing small objects with detail requires a lot of attention and observation, which was the case with this drawing. A snap-blade knife is small, usually around the height of a male hand. Drawing it by observation is tricky because human eyes are uncomfortable concentrating too much on small and detailed things. Drawing every bit of detail merely by eye observation was hard. I drew the snap-blade knife in such a position that it looks like it is about to cut a piece of paper:
I did not put the knife anywhere still while drawing, I just held it in my hand and looked at it from time to time in the position that I drew in. This was an on-purpose challenge because I could not hold it at the same angle all the time, which meant that I had to use my memory, and even improvisation, to render the knife realistically.
You can tell by the above picture that I magnified the object a couple of times by drawing it on a large (50x70 cm) paper. This is a helpful practice, because there are many objects that are small but intricate, and a well-rounded artist or designer can not just keep drawing small objects small.
That being said, I used a graphite pencil to draw the form, and dry pencils to color the knife. This work took a full day’s work. I am mostly confident with how it turned, but I still need to work faster. I can say I am getting faster with practice, but I feel like I have a long way to go.