How to draw a still life in pencil in stages: a short instruction

A still-life is the genre of fine art, in which the artist captures objects of inanimate nature. In French, this sounds like "dead nature". More accurate, however, is the English phrase still life, which translates as "fixed life".

The charm of the genre

The art of still life arose as a genre in the 17th century in Holland. Representing ordinary objects, the artists tried to express their plasticity, and even poetry. Throughout the history of painting masters freely experiment with the form, color, texture of things, compositional solutions in the performance of the drawing.

To perform a still-life with a pencil in stages - for beginners the task is not so difficult. The main thing is to find the right composition and see it in a spatial perspective. This little lesson will help to realize this attempt.

How to draw a still life with a pencil

Step by step we will consider where to begin work, how not to be mistaken with the location of objects in the space of the drawing and correctly depict light and shadow. The very first thing that needs to be done is to pick up objects for a still life. Do not take on drawing too complex objects, it's better to take for the drawing the most usual things with geometrically understandable shapes: a cup, a fruit, a box. You can take photos, but prefer to pay attention to nature, because only with it you will have more opportunity to examine objects in detail and specify details. As you master the art of still life, you can complicate forms and compositions.

Take care of lighting

Before you paint a still-life with a pencil, stage by stage we place the objects next to each other, not forgetting the light source. Objects can be located at some distance, but it will be more interesting if they slightly overlap each other's edges. The flow of light from the lamp will allow expressing the contrast of shades and highlights more expressively. It is better if it falls from the side. Relying not on artificial, but on sunlight, it is necessary to remember that the luminary does not stand still, therefore the angles of light and shadow will change.

Let's get down to the drawing

Before you paint a still life, in a pencil step by step, we will spot the location of the objects, as their edges and lines intersect each other. Let's specify the plane on which the objects lie, with a horizontal line behind the composition, which delimits the table and the wall. Let's outline the perspective: to represent objects in three-dimensional space, we will remember that they can not be drawn on one line. The sizes of objects that are closer to us, we represent more than those that are located further.

The sketch is made by light sliding lines. In order not to be mistaken with the proportions of objects, we imagine in imagination the central axis for each of them. You can depict it on a sheet on which we paint a still life with a pencil. Step by step we will sketch the geometric form underlying each object, and from it we will create the object itself. At the heart of the apple and the cup will be circles, boxes are obtained from parallelepipeds, a sugar bowl is based on a square, and its lid is an oval.

After the forms have been defined, we begin to refine the objects with neat and confident lines. Using the eraser, we get rid of the initial strokes.

Final Steps

How to draw a still life with a pencil, gradually creating the volume of objects? Here the main role is played by shadows and light glare. Copy them from life, denser by shading the darker parts of objects. It is also important to pay attention to which part of the composition is darkening, how and where objects cast shadows on another object and on the plane.

The finished sketch will be perfected, correcting the details of the drawing, sealing the shadows of the shadows and the texture of the objects.