How to Draw & Paint a Still Life

Fruit is often the subject of still life paintings.

Drawing and painting the still life counts among one of the most important activities in art. The creation of the still life teaches many important lessons about how to accurately represent art on the page. A still life teaches the artist to notice how light helps to create the shape of an object, proper composition techniques and how to control artistic media. The basis for making a good still life is the drawing. It's during the drawing phase that you should work out composition problems as well as an understanding of the lights and darks in your still life.

Things You'll Need

• Still life materials
• Desk lamp
• Illustration board
• Pencils
• Acrylic paints
• Paint brush and palette

Instructions

1. Set up the still life. Choose a bowl of fruit to start with; as you become more proficient with still life, you can choose other subjects. Make sure that you direct your desk lamp on the fruit and that the place where you put the still life has just the right amount of darkness to provide you with plenty of shadows on your still life once you turn on the light.

2. Study the composition of the still life and notice the basic shapes in the still life. You may have to close one eye to see it very well. For example, notice that the apples are kind of an oval shape, the oranges a circle, the banana a distorted cylinder and the bowl a half moon.

3. Block out the shapes of the still life on the illustration board.

4. Take your basic shapes to the next level by drawing in the detail lines of each object. For example, notice the way the apple curves, and recreate how that line looks to you. The most important thing to keep in mind is to draw what you see. Look carefully at how the outlines of each piece of fruit intersect with the outlines of the fruit next to it. Erase any extra lines that you don't need until your drawing resembles your bowl of fruit---not your idea of what it should look like, but what it really looks like.

5. Fill your palette with the necessary colors.

6. Add blocks of color with your paint. Paint in the darkest areas of the fruit first; that is the shadows. Once this is dry---it usually takes just a few minutes with acrylic---begin adding the lighter shades. Notice how the light falls on the fruit. Notice the differences in the color of the fruit on the areas that have direct light on them as opposed to how the same color looks when it's dark.

7. Stand back to see more of the details of your still life and fill them in on your painting until it's done. For example, use your dark paints to fill in the dimples in the orange's skin. Notice how the dimples look different on the dark side of the orange. Repeat this process with all the fruit, filling in the details. All accurately recreated art relies on the same principle; draw or paint what you see. It sounds easier than it is, but doing it will help you distinguish your idea of what the fruit or the bowl should look like from what it really looks like. The ability to accurately translate the details that your eye sees onto the canvas will get you an accurate still life.

References

• "Sketchbook for the Artist"; Sarah Simblet; 2005
• "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way"; Stan Lee and John Buscema; 1978
• "An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers"; Danny Gregory; 2008
• Draw 23: Drawing Still Life
• Empty Easel: How to Draw What You See: Techniques and Tips to Improve Your Drawing Skills
• Nancy Doyle Fine Art: Painting Lesson III: Limited Palette Still Life

Resources

• How to Draw and Paint: Learn to Draw Whatever You Want
• Learn How to Draw and Paint: Why Still Life Painting Backgrounds Are Important