A Guide to creating still lifes

Introduction

• Defining Still Life: Still life, or "nature morte" in French, depicts inanimate objects. It allows you to control every element within your artistic frame. This control is essential for developing your artistic skills.

• Choosing Your Subjects: Select objects based on their shapes, textures, and colors. Consider objects with contrasting qualities (e.g., rough/smooth, organic/geometric). Tell a story with your objects. What mood do you want to evoke?

• Arrangement Principles:

• The Triangle: A classic and stable composition. Arrange objects to create a visual triangle. This is a great starting point for beginners.

• The Rule of Thirds: Mentally divide your canvas into nine equal rectangles. Place key elements along these lines or at their intersections for a more dynamic composition.

• Overlapping: Create depth by overlapping objects. This suggests spatial relationships and avoids a flat, linear arrangement.

• Variety: Incorporate a variety of shapes, sizes, and textures to maintain visual interest. Avoid monotony.

• Negative Space: The space surrounding your objects is just as important. Use it to balance the composition and draw attention to the subjects.

Lighting: Illuminating the Ordinary

• Understanding Light and Shadow: Light reveals form. Study how light interacts with your objects, creating highlights, shadows, and reflected light.

• Light Source: Decide on a primary light source (natural or artificial). A single, strong light source will create dramatic shadows and highlights.

• Types of Light:

  • Direct Light: Creates sharp shadows.

  • Diffused Light: Creates softer, less defined shadows. Use a scrim or a sheer curtain to diffuse light.

  • Reflected Light: Light bounces off surfaces and illuminates the shadow areas. Observe the subtle gradations of light within the shadows.

• Chiaroscuro: The technique of using strong contrasts between light and dark to create a dramatic effect. This is a powerful tool for adding depth and emotion.

• Value Scale: Familiarize yourself with creating a value scale, from pure white to pure black, with varying shades of gray in between. This helps you accurately represent the contrast between light and shadow.

Drawing Techniques: Building the Form

• Gesture Drawing: Begin with a loose, gestural sketch to capture the overall shapes and relationships between objects. Don't focus on details at this stage.

• Blocking In: Define the basic forms of the objects using simple geometric shapes (cubes, spheres, cylinders).

• Contour Drawing: Refine the outlines of the objects, paying close attention to curves, angles, and subtle variations in form.

• Cross-Hatching: Use intersecting lines to create tonal values and suggest form. The closer the lines, the darker the value.

• Stippling: Use dots to create tonal values. Denser areas of dots create darker values.

• Blending: Smudge or blend your drawing medium (pencil, charcoal) to create smooth transitions between tonal values. Use blending stumps, paper towels, or your fingers (carefully!).

• Erase Strategically: Erasers are tools for highlighting and refining. Use them to lift out highlights or correct errors.

Painting Techniques: Adding Color and Depth

• Color Theory Basics: Understand the color wheel, primary colors (red, yellow, blue), secondary colors (green, orange, violet), and tertiary colors (red-orange, yellow-green, etc.).

• Color Mixing: Experiment with mixing colors to achieve the desired hues. Start with small amounts and gradually add more.

• Value and Color: Value is the lightness or darkness of a color. Controlling value is crucial for creating realistic paintings.

• Color Temperature: Warm colors (reds, yellows, oranges) tend to advance, while cool colors (blues, greens, violets) tend to recede. Use this to create depth.

• Painting Methods:

  • Underpainting: Create a monochromatic underpainting to establish the value structure before adding color.

  • Glazing: Apply thin, transparent layers of paint over the underpainting or other layers. This creates rich, luminous colors.

  • Impasto: Apply thick layers of paint to create texture and visual interest.

  • Alla Prima (Wet-on-Wet): Painting directly onto a wet canvas, blending and layering colors simultaneously. This method is quick and expressive.

• Brushwork: Experiment with different brushstrokes to create various textures and effects. Use different sized brushes for different detail levels.

• Mediums: Understand the effects of mediums on paint application (e.g., linseed oil, turpentine, acrylic mediums).

Materials

• Drawing: Pencils (varying grades from hard to soft), charcoal, graphite sticks, erasers (kneaded, plastic), drawing paper (smooth, textured).

• Painting: Canvas (stretched or canvas boards), paints (oil, acrylic, watercolor), brushes (various sizes and shapes), palette, palette knife, mediums, rags.

Practice and Observation

The most important element is practice! Set up simple still lifes and experiment with different techniques. Study the works of master still life painters. Observe the world around you and pay attention to the interplay of light and shadow, color, and form. Still life is a journey of discovery. Embrace the process, experiment fearlessly, and develop your unique artistic voice.