[b]Still life is called
image of a number of inanimate objects. Translated from French it is
"dead nature" Vegetables, fruits, bouquets of flowers, various items,
made by man, can be material for still lifes. Drawing
still life develops artistic taste in a child, because the selection of objects in
the still life is not accidental, but meaningful and specially selected. In still life the artist
seeks to reveal the beauty of the shape of objects or their color relationships.

Before we start drawing, let's think about
What is the most convenient way to arrange them on a sheet - in the length or width of the sheet.

Try to get the items
you were not crooked, they stood straight, they didn’t fall, they looked like a teapot and a cup, drawn
Here.



When we draw the bottom of the teapot,
Let's draw rounded lines, remembering that you don't need to pinch too hard
in your fingers and press on it. Let's draw rounded lines easily and
freely: they will turn out more correctly.



When depicting a still life consisting
from several items, try to arrange them so that they are partially
covered each other - this will give greater naturalness.




This figure shows how the volume
conveyed in separate strokes: where there is no light, the strokes are darker. Darker
strokes are also located in the place of the falling shadow. And in the place where the light falls, they are drawn
glare.



Let's try to draw a still life,
consisting of four items: a jug, drapery and two apples.



Now let's draw
still life consisting of a jug, plate, cutting board and spoon.

Compositionally, the whole group is very
diverse. A spoon lying at an angle “interrupts” the verticality of the jug and
the horizontality of the board with the plate, thus introducing variety into
curvilinear shapes of objects.

Drawing drapery

The background in a still life plays a big role

Still life is a type of painting that depicts inanimate objects. You can draw a still life correctly not only oil paints(although this method is considered classic) - such pictures are painted with watercolors, pastels, pencils, and so on.

To create a harmonious plot in this style, a number of rules are used - failure to comply with them can lead to disappointment with the result. Therefore, learning to draw still lifes should begin with studying these recommendations and, of course, applying them in practice.

How to draw a still life for a beginning artist

Before you start painting a masterpiece still life, you should decide on the style of the painting and its content. Most often, for teaching, drawing a vase of flowers standing on a table is used - you can artistically scatter bright fruits next to it, and a nice still life is ready. You can also come up with your own composition - the main thing is that it is not too complicated for learning.

Basic rules when painting a still life:

• the arrangement of objects should not be boring. That is, you don’t need to draw them lying (standing) at the same level and at the same distance from each other - use overlapping techniques, change the distance, play with sizes;
• empty space is not interesting; it needs to be filled with something. Even if there is only one flower vase in your picture, use your imagination: you can place a fallen leaf nearby or spread a napkin. These details will not be conspicuous and distract attention from the main subject, while filling the voids and creating the necessary depth of the composition;
• choice of tones - for a still life, too wide a range of colors is rarely used; such a picture should be calm. Take 2-3 colors as a basis, add their shades - you will get a bright, but not variegated image. If you need to use a large number of colors, do not use them equally; there should be a dominant color that fills the main space;
• in addition to the dominant color, there must be a dominant object to which the viewer’s eye clings. It is the center of the picture, the rest of the composition simply complements it. As an example - a pair of larger and brighter buds in a bouquet, a slightly more successfully rotated fruit in the foreground;
• A still life should be drawn in stages, smoothly building a harmonious composition.

Drawing an attractive still life with pencil, oil, or other types of paint is not that difficult if you use a basic knowledge of perspective, symmetry, and the rules for placing objects on the canvas. Use these tips and you will definitely succeed!

Draw a still life picture in stages

Imagine that the entire process of painting a picture can be divided into 4 stages:

• drawing only the geometric contours of objects onto the canvas;
• drawing the outlines of objects;
• adding shades and shadows;
• detailed drawing.

Beginning artists do not use too “rich” compositions - they need to draw two or three objects lying on the table in order to understand how to draw a still life. After this, you can begin to paint more complex paintings.

If you really want to learn how to draw beautiful still lifes it’s not difficult at all – they will be an excellent help: sign up for the master class “Painting in 3 hours” and learn the basics visual arts under the guidance of an experienced teacher. Rest assured: with this approach, creating your first masterpiece is very close!

So, what is a still life? The first thing that comes to mind is a jug or vase, fruits, vegetables, cups, flowers, etc. In fact, a still life can contain absolutely any two or more inanimate objects, usually small in size, lying on the surface.

In this lesson I will show you how to draw a flower still life (the lesson uses a wonderful photo from Galina Chi).

Step 1. When drawing any still life, the first thing you need to do is imagine all the objects in the form of the simplest forms. In this example, the basket can be represented as a parallelogram, and the vase as a cylinder. It is very important to immediately place the objects correctly on a sheet of paper. Please note that items should stand on the table and not roll off it.

Step 2. We bend the lines to get the shape of the objects we need. Add a handle to the basket.

Step 3. Using circles and sticks we draw cherries, not forgetting that they overlap each other. Don't try to make them perfectly even.

Step 4. Designate the flowers and their centers. At this stage, you don’t have to draw the petals yet. We also add leaves.

Step 5. Draw the petals.

Step 6. We begin to shade the drawing - add a wicker texture to the basket, shade the cherries in a circle, leaving a large number of highlights to make them juicier. On right side add a strip of highlight on top of the shading. We shade flower petals and leaves from the center to the edges.
Since the light comes from the left, we add horizontal shadows to the right of the objects.

Still life called the image of a number of inanimate objects. Translated from French it is “dead nature”. Vegetables, fruits, bouquets of flowers, various human-made objects can be material for still lifes. Drawing a still life develops artistic taste in a child, because the selection of objects in a still life is not random, but meaningful and specially selected. In a still life, the artist strives to reveal the beauty of the shape of objects or their color relationship.

Before we start drawing, let's think about how it is more convenient to arrange them on the sheet - in the length or width of the sheet.

Try to ensure that your objects are not crooked, stand straight, do not fall, and look like the teapot and cup drawn here.

When we draw the bottom of the teapot, we will draw rounded lines, remembering that we do not need to hold the pencil tightly in our fingers and press on it. Let's draw the rounded lines easily and freely: they will turn out more correctly.

When depicting a still life consisting of several objects, try to arrange them so that they partially cover each other - this will give greater naturalness.

In this figure you can see how the volume is conveyed by individual strokes: where there is no light, the strokes are darker. Darker strokes are also located in the place of the falling shadow. And in the place where the light falls, highlights are drawn.

Let's try to draw a still life consisting of four objects: a jug, drapery and two apples.

Now let’s draw a still life consisting of a jug, plate, cutting board and spoon.

Compositionally, the whole group is very diverse. A spoon lying at an angle “interrupts” the verticality of the jug and the horizontality of the board with the plate, thus introducing variety into the curvilinear shapes of objects.

Drawing drapery

F he plays a big role in still life. The artist’s ability to “link” the background with the objects speaks of his professional level. Most often, drapery acts as a background when drawing a still life. Drapery- this is a fabric laid on a plane under an object or thrown over it so that it forms folds. Draperies are called curtains, tablecloths, bedspreads. Drapery will look different depending on the type of fabric and its quality. Rigid fabrics, such as brocade, give large and protruding folds, wool has smaller folds, and silk fabrics form light, soft and small folds.

To draw drapery, it is better to take a fabric that is smooth, wrinkle-resistant and plain (without a pattern). To find out the type of folds, the fabric is fixed on a vertical surface so that the folds fall down. When drawing fabric fixed at one point on a vertical surface, we must first of all see how the folds are formed. We see that folds form at one point and, expanding, diverge downwards. They also form convex and recessed surfaces. Recessed surfaces are darker than convex ones.

When shading folds, apply strokes in the direction of movement of the folds, and in the recesses - along the tension of the surface of the fabric. The entire drapery is covered with strokes, and in shady places the tone intensifies. The folds of the drapery should be well drawn.

Rice. 1

This lesson will be useful for beginning artists who want to paint a still life with gouache. Beginners will learn some secrets of drawing surfaces and textures, and will allow them to see in practice the main rules of painting.

What you will need:

1. Paper (A3 format). Whatman paper is ideal.

2. Brushes. You need to prepare three flat synthetic brushes (small, medium and large), as well as a medium bristle brush.

3. Artistic gouache. Poster gouache is not suitable for painting - it dries quickly and forms streaks. Gouache should be good quality, therefore it is best to purchase paints in specialized art stores.

Stage 1

First, a composition is created with a simple pencil with a soft stylus. It is better to start by marking the table plane with a horizontal line. When determining the height, it is recommended to rely on Fig. 1. The far corner of the table is slightly visible on the right - it needs to be marked with a diagonal line. Then, in compliance with the rules of construction, objects are outlined on the table. Light lines indicate the fabric and its folds. It is important to observe the shape of objects and their location relative to each other.

When the pencil sketch is ready, you can start coloring it. It is better to start with a general background - apply the first layer of paint, making short strokes with a large flat brush. Afterwards the main tones are thrown onto the jug.

Important! There is no need to strive to completely and “perfectly” paint the entire background or other object. Main mistake The problem that beginners make is that they first try to sketch the entire background, leaving white areas in the picture where objects will be located. After that, they paint over all the objects one by one, and completely. Or vice versa, the objects are painted first, and then the background. This should not be done - the completed painting will look as if objects cut out from magazines were pasted onto the sheet. In the end, a successful composition will not work out. Any picture needs to be painted all at once, gradually. Experienced artists alternately return to one or another subject, sometimes making just a couple of strokes - and so on until the picture is completed.

Rice. 2

Stage 2

Now you can start working on the jug - you need to draw it on top of the already applied layer of paint, not forgetting about smooth transitions between shades. You can do a lot with gouache, but it is important not to overdo it so as not to create the appearance of dirt in the picture. During this work, a medium flat brush is used.

Drawing objects must be done taking into account light divisions: light, penumbra, shadow and reflex. In Fig. Figure 3 shows the diagram - it is made in the form of a grid for ease of understanding. The most difficult thing is understanding the reflex. There should be white highlights on the lightest part of the object - on a glossy surface they are more noticeable and brighter.

Rice. 3

Stage 3

After finishing the jug, the main color shades are applied to the tabletop. Do not forget that the planes of the table (vertical side and horizontal surface) should differ from each other in tone saturation. The vertical plane needs to be made darker than the horizontal plane, which is better illuminated.

Rice. 4

Stage 4

Now you can start painting the glass bottle, covering it with the same tone as the main background. It will be transparent, through it you can see the back wall, which acts as a background. For this reason, the main shade of the bottle will be the background tone. But you need to remember that the bottle still remains visible, it has size and volume. This can be conveyed in a painting by highlighting the edges of the bottle with light paint. Afterwards, a few cold tones are added to the bottle, with the help of which it will be possible to convey glass on paper. To add volume, a reflex is drawn. At the end of this work, highlights are created. There are various highlights on one bottle: some are pale and softened around the edges, others are bright and noticeable. Before you start creating highlights, it is recommended to carefully consider how they look in the author’s painting. In general, the presented drawings will help you understand how to draw a still life with gouache.

Rice. 5

Stage 5

Now it’s the turn of the pan. First, it’s worth remembering the light separation grid, and for this you will have to return to Fig. 3. Not forgetting this principle, paint is applied to the pan. Dark gray and light tones are used first, and the darkest paint is left to emphasize the texture of old, chipped and worn metal.

Read more about how to convey old worn metal in a painting. To achieve such a texture, you will need a coarse bristle brush, and a dry one. By this moment the gray background of the pan with chiaroscuro should be ready. A dry brush is lightly dipped in gouache; you don’t need to take a lot of paint. According to Figure 6, straight, long strokes are made from top to bottom along the darkened side of the pan. The strokes should be rough and full of holes; even during the stroke, the paint on the brush should run out. Before doing this, it is better to practice making similar strokes on a separate sheet so as not to spoil the picture.

Rice. 6

Stage 6

Now you need to finish the pan. Empty areas are covered with basic tone paint using a small brush. A reflex is drawn on the side of the pan, directly on top of the black texture. Handles are drawn and the outline of the pan is indicated. There is no need to greatly detail the subject so that individual parts of the picture do not fall out of the overall style. We must not forget about the interconnection of objects.

Rice. 7

Stage 7

Now you need to start draping around the pan, painting it completely with paint. This is best done with a large flat brush. It is important to remember that the fabric is illuminated unevenly; it appears lighter on one side. In the drawing, multidirectional planes should differ in tone from each other: the vertical plane is made darker than the horizontal. This also applies to the fabric on the table.

Rice. 8

Stage 8

Now it’s the saucer’s turn; its main color is white. Volume is given to it using bluish-gray and gray paint. Then the edge of the saucer is outlined with blue pigment - it should not be too dark. The lower part of the saucer does not need to be made too light, since it is in the shade.

Rice. 9

Stage 9

When the space of the painting is almost completely covered with paint, the drawings are detailed and refined. First, the folds in the fabric are worked out (this is easy to do even for beginners). Recommended to use more lungs tones on the fabric to give the image a natural look.

The dishes on the table cast shadows. Next to each of the objects you need to draw the shadow cast from it using cool shades. Shadows should not be bright and sharp, but rather look diffused.

Stage 10

Now you can move on to the last item - the apple. It is drawn according to the principle of light separation, like other already drawn objects.

The apple casts a colored light onto nearby objects and surfaces. A pinkish tint is added to the saucer along with the shadow of the apple.

It is important to remember that through color the interaction of all objects in the picture occurs. Objects transfer part of their color to each other. By analogy with an apple, the relationships between other objects and surfaces are displayed.

Rice. 10

Stage 11

After the painting has been completed in general outline, you need to pay attention to those details that were left unattended. If the sketch made in pencil has already been erased or has become invisible under the paint, then you can draw the contours again. Then they will be painted over, because gouache is a thick and opaque paint.

Rice. eleven

Stage 12

In order for the picture to acquire depth, volume and solidity, you need to use one artistic device– at the end of the work, barely noticeably blur the contours of objects in order to soften the line of contact between objects and the environment.