Draw a Still Life
A still life is a picture of objects, either natural (fruit, plants, rocks) or man-made (dishes, knickknacks). It's a great exercise in detail and perspective. You can play around with the arrangement of the elements, which you can't do as easily when drawing landscapes or portraits. It can also make your viewer appreciate the beauty of everyday objects. Follow these steps to draw a still life.
Instructions
1. Study still life paintings of the masters. Let their subject matter and technique stimulate your creativity. Artcyclopedia (see link in Resources) has samples and links to artists specializing in still life paintings.
2. Choose your subject. This isn't as trivial as it sounds. Pick a familiar object that's not too complex like a cigarette lighter, apple or coffee cup if you're just starting out. You can move on to things with more design elements like wrinkled clothes or objects with multiple parts as you gain experience.
3. Draw from left to right and top to bottom. It helps you organize how you study your object. It also keeps you from resting your hand on a finished portion of your drawing and smudging it.
4. Make an outline of the object. Remember to maintain its proportions. Use a sharp lead pencil that makes a light line. Fill in some highlights to guide you in detail work later.
5. Look carefully at the play of light and shadow on your object. Still life subjects are a great way to practice subtle tones. Have medium and dark shading pencils available so you can follow the shading of your object from top left to bottom right.
6. Pay attention to the surface of your object. Include scratches, stains, warped areas, cracks and chips in your still life drawing. Think of how light and shade plays with these imperfections and use the blending tortillions and eraser to shape these details.
