The Objective Of My Objective

My recent assignment was to illustrate seasonal fruit for point of sale. I chose a raspberry to represent summer time. The objective was to produce an image that reflected the quality and characteristics of a real raspberry.

I can honestly say that I was true to my objective and I spent hours drawing my raspberry. I did it over and over again until it was as right as I could get it. It was laborious and time consuming but I wanted to be loyal to the idea that an objective drawing means that its ‘presented factually and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices.’

The irony is that the more I drew the dam raspberry, the more obsessed I got with it, it became totally personal and it influenced me emotionally. I also had feelings of prejudice towards the raspberry’s that didn’t make the grade. Was this really an objective drawing?

In the end, it looks like a raspberry, however there was a point where I just felt empty towards it, I couldn’t even finish it as I feared I may ruin it. Something was missing and I couldn’t see what it was.

I came across this quote by Picasso

This is where my objective changed; I had to push my factual representation into subjectivity so I could make sense of the reality. I had spent hours studying it, now it was time to see it my way.

I looked again at its structure, I wanted to draw the segments in rectangles as the segments are not all a circular shape, in fact, if you dissect it you will see we are looking at the distorted tops of squashed tear drop shapes. I didn’t put value on the green leafy bit at the top and I thought it should just be a line as rather than a solid leaf.

I still think this image is objective in the sense that it’s presented factually; indeed my raspberry still has segments that form a raspberry structure, and a leafy bit on the top. It’s also subjective because I drew what was in my mind and I turned what I knew to be a raspberry, into my own interpretation and from this process growth has taken place.

To see more of my fruit studies, go to my illustration section.

Mono print