Still Life Pencil Drawing
Still Life Pencil Drawing
Still Life Pencil Drawing
Still Life is the best subject in art for learning and teaching the skills of drawing and painting. It teaches
you how to look at objects and see them like an artist - with a perceptive awareness of their outline,
shape, proportions, tone, color, texture, form and composition.
Our step by step still life lesson will teach you the drawing techniques used to create the still life above
which was done with a 2B pencil on cartridge paper. You can see an animated version of this lesson in our
Still Life Pencil Slideshow.
Steps 1 to 4: These steps demonstrate how to draw the shapes and proportions of the still life objects
using line.
Steps 5 to 8: These steps illustrate how to render the three dimensional form of the still life using tone.
● a 2B pencil
● an eraser
● an A3 sheet of stiff cartridge paper, or a paper of similar quality around 180+gms.
TECHNIQUE: In any still life, you should start to draw the objects as if they are transparent wire frame
forms with visible lines of construction. This technique helps you to be fully aware of the shape of each
individual form and its position in relation to the other forms. It is important to sketch the objects lightly
as this makes it easier to change any mistakes and erase any lines of construction.
NOTE: This see-through drawing technique uses vertical and horizontal lines of construction to help you
to draw convincing ellipses and to balance the symmetry of cylindrical forms.
TECHNIQUE: When composing a still life, try to introduce the qualities that make an interesting
arrangement. You need to be aware of the abstract structure of your arrangement: its rhythms and
contrasts of line, shape, tone, color, pattern, texture and form.
TECHNIQUE: Now lightly sketch in the shapes of any shadows or reflections onto each object.
NOTE: The more care you take over the accuracy of these marks, the easier you will find the next stage of
the drawing - the Application of Tone.
TECHNIQUE: The tone of our still life is built up in four stages outlined in steps 5 - 8. In this step, some
basic tones are lightly applied to each object to help build up its three dimensional form.
TECHNIQUE: The second stage in building up the tone focuses on the spaces between and around the
objects.
NOTE: The drawing of the light and shade between the objects must be treated with as much importance
as the drawing of the objects themselves. The shadows cast beneath and around the objects add as much
to the definition of their shapes as does the shading on their surfaces. Notice how the counter-change of
tones between the objects and the spaces takes over from the use of line to define the forms of the still
life.
NOTE: The biggest problem at this stage is maintaining a balance of tones across the whole still life so
that no object appears too dark or too light. You are searching for a unity of tone and form.
TECHNIQUE: Finally, you focus again on the spaces between the objects, deepening their tones and
increasing their contrast.
THE FINISHED STILL LIFE: The completed still life should work on two levels: as a realistic representation
of the group of objects and as a dynamic composition of visual elements, harmonizing and contrasting the
use of line, shape and tone.
Each of our Still Life Lessons concludes with an animated slideshow that demonstrates the techniques
used from start to finish.
A still life (plural still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically
commonplace objects which may be either natural (food, flowers, plants, rocks, or shells) or
man-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, pipes, and so on). With origins in the Middle
Ages and Ancient Greek/Roman art, still life paintings give the artist more leeway in the arrangement
of design elements within a composition than do paintings of other types of subjects such as
landscape or portraiture. Still life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and
allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted. Some modern still life breaks the
two-dimensional barrier and employs three-dimensional mixed media, and uses found objects,
photography, computer graphics, as well as video and sound.