Learning to draw a still life

It’s nice to start drawing still lifes because your usual desk is enough. In addition, if you now all master the basic techniques of drawing, in the future, this will make it easier for you to engage in any kind of fine art.

For example, having learned how to draw a cookie box correctly, you can easily cope with any similar rectangular shapes in an urban landscape, be it ancient towers, tall houses or buses.

A keen eye and the ability to notice details is the cornerstone on which a classic still life is built. Having developed your ability to truly deeply see nature and notice all the characteristic details, you can consider your start a success. Moreover, the most successful nature is one that naturally attracts your attention, causing a desire to draw it.

When there is no interest in the subject, no effort will help, no technique will save your drawing, which will turn out dull and dull. Therefore, start with items that you often use that are familiar to you. Try to choose the colors that you like, even if you write in meager or even monochrome colors. If you make a composition of boring objects, your passion for drawing will disappear very quickly.

Being engaged in a home environment, you can choose things related to your life, work or hobby. So you will have the opportunity to reflect your personality through them.

In any room of your house, from the kitchen to the attic, you will find a huge number of already completed compositions, just waiting to be immortalized by the artist’s hand. Often they do not even require rearrangement and carry the charm of spontaneity.

But you can make new compositions from the most beloved or interesting things to you. Having drawn children’s toys, an old sewing machine, or even a tool box, you will forever imprint in memory some stretch of your life.

Objects endowed with an emotional charge will allow you to start working with great enthusiasm, and you will quickly advance in mastering the drawing technique.

Correctly build composition

A number of compositions can attract your attention, as they carry the special atmosphere of your home or include your favorite things. However, remember that the selection of the right elements is the key to the success of the drawing, and it requires the development of special skills.

Carefully observe how the overall artistic expressiveness of the composition changes as the location of the selected objects changes. This is due to the fact that your very first glance covers only the general outlines of the group.

In general terms, a spacious composition stretched across the width gives the impression of being too static, while closely placed, angular or different-sized objects enliven the drawing and give it a certain dynamic. Therefore, be sure to include objects of various shapes in the composition.

Keep in mind that low and elongated objects will only benefit from the proximity to one or two high ones, which will add vertical lines to the composition. On the contrary, with an abundance of tall elongated objects, it is useful to “dilute” them with wide, horizontal ones. Perhaps you like smooth polished surfaces or, conversely, plain, matte and rough. Perhaps you prefer rounded shapes or vice versa, straight and angular - anyway, the main thing to remember is the rule: any composition of the same elements will be unsuccessful.

Figuratively, this can be compared with a lunch of cabbage salad, cabbage cabbage and cabbage stuffed cabbage. Contrast is always pleasing to the eye, so be sure to include in the composition something opposite to the main theme.

By changing shapes, shades, texture and planes, adding variety and creating contrast to the main elements, you will avoid routine. Even if you decide to adhere to traditional canons, always reserve the right to choose the format, scale, or colorings that are best suited to each unique combination of your chosen items.

The most successful drawings are obtained as a result of a non-standard and interesting solution: selecting objects for a still life, be guided exclusively by your own taste and do not look back at anyone. Follow your desires, but think through all the details thoroughly.

You can arrange all objects with a long and narrow rectangle and add several objects to it, contrasting with the main ones, the main thing - do not be afraid to make a mistake, experiment and you will definitely get something real, only yours. By changing the lighting or background, adding or removing objects, making sketches and comparing them with each other, you will finally find the best option for you. Remember that it is always difficult to exclude an object from the composition. Here you need to mentally remove individual elements, imagining what you would like to see in their place.

If you can’t decide, tell yourself that all the objects that fall into the frame suit you. And soon you will find that this or that subject you either do not want or cannot represent. Then rearrange everything that does not suit you to a new place, or block these objects with others, if you can’t completely exclude them from the composition.

Importance of the right scale

Define the format of your composition by making preliminary sketches, since the solution lying on the surface is far from always the most successful. Only having thought over several options, you can make an informed choice between landscape (horizontal) and portrait (vertical) format and precisely determine the most suitable proportions for the image.

A drawing needs to be built no less than a good song or story, since it should be aimed, first of all, at the overall effect. The visual directions of your work can be two- and three-dimensional, they can intersect in different directions the space of the picture you are forming, or even go deep into it, but they must return to the center of composition that you have planned.

To learn how to attract the attention of the viewer, at first create groups according to the example of successful compositional schemes, always clearly defining the focus center for your work.

The next task concerns the scale of the picture. Here the simplest solution is to draw an object of the same size as you see it, checking the accuracy of the drawing according to the marks that you put directly on the depicted object.

A larger or smaller image, taken from the same point, forces the artist to change the scale of each mark, which greatly complicates the task and is not suitable for beginner draftsmen. A safer way out is to change the place to see the subject at the scale at which you will represent it.

Looking for a visual accent

The most important compositional factor is your creative intent, although the viewfinder will help you decide how many objects and surrounding space to include in the picture.

The choice of format and its filling significantly changes the visual impression of the picture. Check the opportunities that open before you, carefully weigh what is preferable to you in this case - the splendor of the multi-figure composition or the charm of intimacy.

In any subject, you can either emphasize the massiveness or elegance of its shape, or engage in a rigorous decorative study of details. Which of these compositions you like best is up to you.

Do not forget to change your approach to nature as often as possible. If you use the usual composition and scale all the time, you will begin to stagnate, and you will lose the ability to be flexible, even if it seems to you that you have found the ideal option for yourself.