I Hate Maracas!

I am struggling with part of the first project - the still life. Having put together the objects, I started sketching, but I cannot get the maracas right. I have placed them on either side of the bongoes, one is handle to the front, the other reversed. The first sketch had the maraca on the left standing in the air! A combination of badly drawn maraca, and then trying to squeeze the shadow into too little a space, instead of just putting part of the shadow in. I did not actually notice what I was doing until after I had finished and stopped to look.

Then came the second attempt, from a different height. I did not get this one so well centred on the page, and the left hand maraca is still pointing upwards, whilst the right hand one has developed a bent end. They are also completely out of proportion with one another.

At this point I decided it was time to stop drawing the whole thing, and instead to concentrate on just the maracas until I am happy with the result. The one on the right with the bulbous end to the front I am finding much easier to draw. The left hand one, looking up the handle I am really struggling with. If I succeed in getting it to lay down, it looks as though I am looking at it from the side, and not from the tip of the handle. When I get it so I am looking up the handle, it then looks raised upwards. I am looking and seeing, but failing to transfer that to paper. I have tried looking at it with one eye, using my stick of charcoal as a line to run through the middle of the maraca to get the angle, then putting a similar centre line on the paper first and building the maraca around it, but still the result is wrong. A friend who draws and paints has suggested that I get a piece of card to use as a viewfinder and frame the maraca in it. Then close one eye, which will give me a 2D image which will be easier to draw. So I am going to try that next.