Creating & Drawing a Still Life
Art Standards
Creating & Drawing
a Still Life
Unit topic 2.1
Visual Arts
Grade 9
Stevan Moreno
Recall a time that you wanted to draw something
you saw in life, and you just couldn’t get it right.
• Drawing still lifes helps us
strengthen our hands and eyes so
we may faithfully recreate what
we see.
• Just how composing a still life
helps develop spatial, critical,
and aesthetic thinking; drawing a
still life develops your skills in
spatial, critical, and aesthetic
problem solving. Allowing you to
draw accurately from life.
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Why Create a Still Life?
• 1.1 Identify and use the principles of design to discuss,
analyze, and write about visual aspects in the environment
and in works of art, including their own.
• 2.1 Solve a visual arts problem that involves the effective use
of the elements of art and the principles of design.
• 2.4 Review and refine observational drawing skills.
Starting Your Still Life: Keep it Interesting
• Find interesting objects around your home
3-5 for your still life. Note, that in this case
interesting refers to the size, shape, and
texture of your objects.
• Also keep in mind balance. Find an array of
objects from simple to complex. Balancing
simple and complex objects keeps the
viewer from becoming overwhelmed and
allows places for the eye to rest.
• (ex. An egg is a simple object, its smooth
and casts nice shadows. A glass is a complex
object as it bends light and warps its
background.) The more angular, textured,
reflective or asymmetric an object the
more complex the object.
• In order to obtain full
knowledge of the elements of
art and design, you must put
them into practice.
• Creating a still life
composition will challenge
your; spatial, critical, and
aesthetic thinking.
Composing your Still Life
• Once you have gathered your 3-5 objects, you
must compose them; usually on a flat surface
with an unoccupied background. You could
also place sheets on your surface and hang
them for your background for added intrigue.
• Ask yourself what would make an interesting
composition?
• Consider the size of each object, the
complexity of each object, and what objects
refract more light.
• Usually you will want to put larger objects
towards the back. The same goes for brighter
more reflective objects depending on their
size. Also you may want to arrange smoother
more simple objects next to more textured
and complex objects for visual symmetry.
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Creating & Drawing a Still Life
Lighting Your Still Life
• Now that you have established
your compositions, consider
your lighting.
• Using a singular light source
will result in stronger shadows.
• Play with your light source
placing it at different angles
over your still life until you
find shadows you are satisfied
with.
Beginning Your Drawing: Contour Lines
Now You Try
• Before you start drawing remember to protect your hand
and drawing.
• Take a sheet of scrap paper large enough to rest your
hand on while you draw. This will keep smudges off your
skin and oils from damaging your work.
• Now sitting across from your still life composition, with
either your 9H pencil or 4B charcoal pencil, draw a faint
horizontal line across your Bristol board.
• This line will act as your guide. Known as a horizon line,
it will be the origin for your objects to rest on.
• Now that you have your guideline set up, With the same
pencil start drawing the contour lines of your objects.
• *Remember contour lines are not outlines. They are lines
that capture the shape of your object and what is seen
within them. Think of yourselves bending wire, use that
wire to make the lines of your object.
Stevan Moreno
Beginning Your Drawing: Materials
• Now that you have your objects composed and lit, you are ready to
begin the drawing process.
• You will need:
• A drawing board
• A sheet of Bristol board, 14 x 17 or 19 x 24.
• Pencils 9H-8B
• Or if you are working in charcoal pencils you will need 4B-6B, and a few sticks of vine
charcoal.
• Kneaded eraser
• Vinyl eraser
• Paper towel or tissue for blending
• And a scrap sheet of paper to protect your hand and image when drawing
• Fixative Spray or if you are in a bind - Hairspray
• Sand Paper
Check Your Work
• Before we move forward, check to see that
you have accurately drawn your objects.
• Prop up your drawing and take a step back
from your work. Looking at your drawing
and composition, compare the two, to see
that your drawing is accurate.
• Ask yourself: do any angels or lines need
adjustment, is anything bending where it
shouldn’t, is anything too big, is anything
warped?
• Do not be upset if you have to redraw an
object, this will only make you a better
artist.
• Repeat the process until you drawing
reflects your composition.
Getting Your Paper Ready: Toning Your Paper
• Before any drawing gets started, it is important that you tone your paper.
• To tone your paper means lightly shading your paper
• Toned paper establishes your background and will help in giving your final
product depth.
• To tone your paper you will need vine charcoal (even if you are working in
graphite)
• Take your sandpaper and file one of your vines over the entirety of your Bristol
board.
• Then with a paper towel in circular motions run the shaving all over your
Bristol.
• Your board will be toned in a light gray and ready for drawing.
Next Step Shading
• Consider the shapes of your objects
now that you have your contour lines
Draw established.
• Ask yourself. What kind of shading
would complement the forms best?
Step Step
• Look over these styles of shading to
back and back and
your right for ideas. Pick one or
combine a few to shade your work.
observe observe
• Note that you are not limited to just
these styles of shading, this is only a
guide.
Edit • Remember all shadows are gradient
not just black, they are blended and
connected.
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Creating & Drawing a Still Life
Things to Remember When Shading
(Graphite)
• Recall that in the previous slide it
was mentioned that shading is a
gradient.
• Starting with your HB pencil,
establish light shades and work
your way up with your pencils to
9B for darker shadows.
• Work from light to dark!
• At transitions from light to dark
shading, remember to blend to
create a gradient effect.
Highlighting
• With established shadows and mid tones creating
the bulk of your drawing's definition, highlights
will give your shadows added depth.
• Look at your composition and see where the light
reflects the most. We are looking bring out the
whitest whites.
• With your kneaded eraser molded into a point,
erase where you want to establish your
highlights.(see highlights in blue circle on the
right)
• There may also be spots that are not highlights,
but still create breaks in the shadows (like the
section on the right circled in yellow.).
• To create dimension, dab your kneaded eraser on
spots where you want to create some relief,
picking up a little bit of graphite or charcoal at a
time.
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Things to Remember When Shading
(Charcoal)
• When shading with charcoal, start by
establishing your light shadows with
your vine charcoal, then working 4B-
6B.
• You will find that charcoal blends
more smoothly than graphite
creating more dynamic shadows.
• With that in mind, it is very easy for
an image to become over shaded and
for shadows to become over blended
turning an image flat.
• Shade conservatively at first with
charcoal, save any heavy darks for
the very end, and blend carefully.
Cleaning
• With your drawing now completed you need to clean all the excess
graphite or charcoal off your drawing to avoid smudging.
• Before touching your drawing place it on a table so that you may
wash any graphite or charcoal off your finger tips.
• With clean hands pick up your drawing still fastened to your
drawing board and hold the board up right an inch off the floor.
• Tap your drawing board letting the side hit the floor. This will
shake loose any excess graphite or charcoal without smudging your
drawing. Do this 2-3 times.
Adjusting Shading
Now You Try
• Now that you have begun shading your work ask
yourself. What if I were to see my work in a
gallery? Look at
your
• Would the shading make it pop off the page, or work
would it be too dark and/or flat?
• Stepping away from your work, close one eye and
look at your composition then back at your work
looking for flat spots.
• With your kneaded eraser you can pull up excess Re-shade
Erases
excess
graphite or charcoal, lightening your work. shading
• Or with your vinyl eraser you can carve out large
sections of shadow to reemphasize your shading.
• Note that cutting out shading sections with a
vinyl eraser will be harder with charcoal, as it is
has a stronger adherence to paper. Redefine
shapes
Protecting
• With a clean and finished drawing it is important to protect your
work so that it can last you a life time
• Take your can of fixative or hairspray hold it 8 inches to a foot
away from your drawing, and lightly spray your drawing evenly.
• Fixative or hairspray bonds your medium to your paper and allows
for easier handling.
• It is important that you keep this to at most two coats, the more
coats, the more likely your paper is to warp and ruin your
drawing.
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Creating & Drawing a Still Life

Storing and displaying Now You Try

• Your work in now finished and ready to show.
• To display your work you have two options:
• You may pin it up, but this will leave holes in your
paper.
• Or, I recommend framing it.
• Note, framing does not have to be expensive, poster shops
do framing for as little as seven dollars and makes your
work look more professional.
• Now that you have just learned how to create your
own still life, try the following:
• Create another still life with the opposite medium from
the one you first used and this time use colored Bristol
board.
• Keep in mind when using colored Bristol board, stick to
mid tones which will work better for your drawings (ex.
burgundy, brown, gray.)
• Lastly, teach a peer or sibling how to create their own still
life.

Stevan Moreno 1