So, about this ‘harp between stars and sea drawing’ I did. It kinda just popped into my head, you know? Not like some grand vision, more like a whisper I almost missed.
I was actually just fiddling around one evening, feeling a bit restless. Stared out the window for a bit, sky was pretty clear. Then, bam, this image of a harp, not just anywhere, but right there, stuck between the vastness of the stars and the deep sea. Seemed like a cool idea to try and get down on paper.
Getting Started – The First Scribbles
First thing, I grabbed my trusty sketchbook, the one with the slightly battered cover. And a pencil, nothing fancy. I just started sketching, real loose. Trying to find the main shapes. Where does the harp go? How big? What about the horizon line for the sea?
I remember I drew a few really bad versions at first. One where the harp looked more like a wonky banana. Had a good laugh about that. Then I thought, okay, let’s make the harp the hero. Big and kind of central. The sea needed to feel calm, almost like a mirror for the sky. And the stars, well, they had to be more than just dots.
- Figured out the harp’s general shape and placement.
- Decided on a low horizon to give more space for the sky.
- Thought about how the starlight would interact with everything.
Adding the Details – This Took a While
Once I had a rough composition I was okay with, I started to refine things. The harp itself, I wanted it to look kind of ancient, but also a bit magical. So, I spent ages on the curves and imagining what kind of wood it might be made of, even though it’s just pencil lines. Getting the perspective right so it didn’t look flat was a bit of a headache.
Then, the sea. I tried to make it look super calm, with just tiny ripples. The idea was for it to reflect the starlight, so the surface texture was important. Lots of soft shading there. I smudged some bits with my finger, probably shouldn’t have, but it sometimes works for that soft look.
And the stars! I didn’t want just a bunch of white specks. I tried to vary their sizes, make some glow a bit more than others. I even hinted at some faint nebula clouds in the background, using an eraser to lift some graphite and create softer light areas. That part was fun, like playing with light itself.
The Tricky Parts and Pushing Through
Honestly, the strings of the harp nearly defeated me. Getting them to look like they were actually strung, and not just random lines, was tough. I must have erased and redrawn them a dozen times. My hand started to cramp up a bit too. Sometimes you just gotta push through that stage, even when you feel like throwing the sketchbook across the room.
Another challenge was making the light feel consistent. If the light is coming from the stars, then the highlights on the harp and the reflections in the water all need to make sense together. I kept stepping back, squinting at the drawing, trying to see if it looked believable, even for a fantasy scene.
Finishing Touches and Calling It Done
The last part was all about small adjustments. Darkening some shadows to make the harp pop, adding a few extra bright pinpricks for the most prominent stars. Little things that hopefully bring it all together. It’s easy to overwork a drawing at this point, so I had to tell myself, “Okay, that’s enough. Put the pencil down.”
And that was pretty much it. From a random thought to a finished piece. Lots of erasing, lots of staring, and a fair bit of “what if I try this?”. It’s not perfect, never is, but I kind of like how this one turned out. Captures that quiet, magical feeling I was going for, I think. So yeah, that’s the story of the harp drawing.
