Constructive drawing of a still life of household items

Work on a constructive drawing of a still life of household items is a continuation of the knowledge of the basics of the drawing. You continue to shape your spatial thinking and vision of still life objects as volumes in space. This drawing is - literally - your second and very important step. You must understand that any object of a still life (and not only a still life) consists of the sum of geometric bodies; that without the knowledge gained in the previous task, you cannot complete this drawing. This is a higher round in the process of understanding your volume of objects.

Take a closer look at still life objects: what reminds you of their shape? It reminds you of the geometric shapes from the previous still life. A jug, a mug, a glass, a cup, fruits consist of the sum of several geometric bodies, such as a cone, cylinder, ball. The table and the plane behind it resemble the planes of a cube, a rectangular prism. Drapery, located on these planes, repeats the direction of these planes, has a thickness and relief, something similar to the elements of such geometric shapes as a cone, cylinder, hexagonal prism.

How to see in the subject its simple components? One must learn this: one must learn to see the simple in the complex. The formation of this vision goes through all the tasks of the drawing that are in this edition.

Compositional sheet solution

As in the still-life drawing of geometric bodies, it is necessary to choose the point of view from which all objects of the still-life are best disclosed, and then proceed to solve the composition of the sheet space. In the two-dimensional space of the sheet, we will reflect the still life objects so that they all fit into the sheet, so that the mass of objects in this space is not crowded, but the space of the sheet does not dominate the composition of still life objects.

The main thing in the composition is a still life, and not the space surrounding it. If space turns out to be the main thing, then this will change our tasks. Our task will be drawing a still life, say, in the interior.

Select the position of the sheet format vertically or horizontally (according to the future composition). In order to choose the position of the sheet for a still life drawing, accustom yourself to performing small foreskises. Foreskizes can be drawn both separately and in the margins of a future drawing. In them you can finally imagine and see the composition of the sheet of your future still life.

Further, approximately observing the proportions, draw a silhouette of the still-life mass on the sheet with light lines. This silhouette will probably represent your desire to see the future composition. But in order to finally verify the accuracy of the silhouette, simply visually (using a pencil) find the proportional relationship between the height and width of the mass of the still life. Correct these values on your sheet, and you will get two values of truth. What it is?

You have probably come across such an expression as “from general to particular” (or vice versa). This means that all subsequent sizes, that is, the proportions, you will agree with the previous proportions. In this case, all subsequent proportions, whether it be a jug or another container, we must coordinate with the height or width of the composition, and therefore, to obtain even the magnitude of truth. The greater the true size, the more accurate the proportional relations of the whole composition will be - this is a single chain.

So, we found the basic proportional relations of still life objects, set the axes - and proceeded to constructively build three-dimensional space in two-dimensional space of the sheet.

Constructive construction of still life objects

Just as in a still life, consisting of geometric figures, you need to understand your goal and objectives. The goal is to draw a still life of household items, and one of the main tasks is to draw the shape of objects in space, transferring their volumes.

The first thing to build is the plane on which the still life objects are located. Use the direct perspective method, which we spoke about above and with which you are already familiar. The success of the whole drawing depends on how correctly you draw the position of the plane in space. Recall: on the plane, as if traces of objects; and only after you make sure that they really "lie" on this plane, proceed to the further construction of still life objects in space, that is, erect frames. A typical mistake is the image of the plane, as if "overturned" on us. However, this was already mentioned in the previous chapter.

The construction of an object is usually started from the center line, because, again, in a still life there are usually objects that have bodies of revolution based on their design (such as a cylinder, cone, ball). Within the center line, find the proportional ratios of the parts of the subject. These relations can be of various forms: for example, a jug consists of two truncated cones and one cylinder. Measure on the centerline the size of these cones and the cylinder in height and width; Using horizontal axial lines, draw four ellipses, each of which must correspond to the position of the shape in space (that is, taking into account the perspective).

Begin the constructive drawing of an object consisting of bodies of revolution from the lower ellipse, which lies on the plane of the table and which you should have already marked. Then proceed to the drawing of the upper ellipse, thus closing the shape, like a cylinder. The upper ellipse should be less “open” than the lower one, since it is higher and closer to the horizon line; other ellipses are “inserted” between them. So, a fruit is a cylinder closed by two hemispheres and having two ellipses.

Everything is drawn transparently and taking into account the aerial perspective of the lines. Recall that an aerial perspective is a “fog effect”.

Draperies will present some difficulty in drawing. But this is until you realize that these are also volumes that are subordinate to space and that repeat it. In other words, they “creep” in space, obey it and react to the slightest changes in this space with the texture of their volume. Drapery texture is a system of interconnected volumes.

You cannot draw a drapery without understanding the space in which it is located. Just as it is impossible to draw a human hairstyle, consisting of hair, without knowledge of the plastic structure of the skull of a human head. Everything is interconnected here, and some practical experience is needed!

Try to see simple geometric shapes in drapery, do not take into account small details. Drapery should be generalized by you to simple and clear forms, because they are easier to draw in space. And as you include details in the drawing and shape modeling with light, you can also detail the drapery.

Speaking of details. Handles of jugs, mugs, cups, spouts of dummies, collars should be built only after the basic forms of objects are built in space and their proportional relations are checked with each other. Incorrectly constructed still life objects (and even with proportional errors) will need to be rebuilt. But they already have details, the creation of which took a lot of time. And this will inevitably cause a feeling of annoyance; but it can be avoided by drawing a still life methodically correctly, or from general to particular.

Having built the drawing according to the laws of linear perspective and having structurally analyzed all the objects of still life, we will again return to the laws of aerial perspective. Let us recall, in this connection, the “fog effect”, when dark and light objects, lines, “coming out” to us, become brighter, more contrast, and the background in this case is gray, lost in space. Apply this knowledge to your drawing, and you will feel the space, the depth of the sheet, on which only the skeletons of still life objects are drawn.

Do not remove construction lines! This is your "wealth", they will still be useful to us. Looking ahead, I’ll say that, working with the tonal elaboration of a still life, some of the lines of construction will fall under tone spots, and some of the lines on light surfaces will be removed with rubber. So do not intentionally remove them.

Lighting

Partial Tone Introduction, Volume Work

It is necessary to determine the light source, it must be located on the left and top or on the right and top. Avoid head-on lighting! In work on the construction of the shape of the subject, we avoided frontal solutions (when instead of a cube we saw a square). There are enough objects in a still life based on bodies of revolution; So, with frontal lighting of a still life instead of a shape, for example, a ball, you will get a circle.

The purpose of lighting is to help further identify the volume of objects in space and space itself. Prior to that, we made the most of the line’s capabilities, and now we have the opportunity to use the lighting.

Define your own, falling shadows and build them. Here I want to once again return to the term "chiaroscuro". In the existing teaching aids on drawing, “chiaroscuro” is defined as lighting in general, and such non-specificity causes certain chaos in the concept of drawing. We will understand it this way: “light” is light, “shadow” is shadow, and chiaroscuro is the border between light and shadow - thus, much in the drawing becomes simple and clear. As stated in the previous assignment, this is one of the key concepts in the fundamentals of a drawing; it is a framework of three-dimensional space, without which your drawing will turn into blind copying. That’s it - it’s serious!

Enter a light tone in the shadow, make the borders of light and shadow darker. On bodies of revolution, chiaroscuro should be soft and blurry, on hull objects - hard. Do not forget about the aerial perspective, planning, partial introduction of tone, analysis of lighting. For you, all the objects of still life are white, there is no tone!

At this stage, work on a constructive still life of household items ends. We created, as it were, the basis of a still life that any educational drawing should have. We will always consider such a basis; this is one of the main stages.