How to Make Still Life Drawing Easy

Top 3 Points and Top 3 Tips

There’s really no mystery to make still life drawing easy. But throughout history the still life has evoked a sense of mysticism and romanticism. In all honesty though, it’s relatively simple to set up a successful still life. Having a good setting will make for a better drawing.

Paul Gauguin

1. Subject Matter. It doesn’t always have to be flowers and vegetables. It can really be whatever interests you. I’ve seen fantastic still life drawings that centered around outdoor life and hunting. I’ve seen others dealing with sports and others with music. Pick objects that interest you and you’ll have more fun drawing them! ———-
2. Arrangement. Side by side placement is (in my opinion) probably the most boring setup. For a still life, you want to build interest. This involves staggering items in regard to height and distance. If all of your objects are roughly the same size, consider setting one of them of on a small box to elevate it above the others. This is also a great opportunity to play with asymmetrical balance. Having two or three small objects on one side offset by a single large object on the other side creates tension and interest.  —————————————————————————————————————————————————––
3. Lighting. Although mentioned last here, lighting is probably the most important feature of a still life. Without proper lighting, a still life lacks interest and dimension. This may take some trial and error. However, this is such an critical part to make still life drawing easy. Without good lighting, you’ll be lacking strong value in your drawing and the still life will just fall flat. For simplicity’s sake, start off with:
   1. Place objects on a plain white sheet. It will not only eliminate any distracting patterns or extraneous details, but it will help reflect light.
   2. Direct your lighting. Lighting from one side is always most effective. You may choose to use one strong light source in spotlight fashion, or you might use two lights. Ideally, one of those lights will be the dominant light source and the other much dimmer.
   3. Strive for contrast. Your goal is to create interesting highlights and dramatic shadows.
   4. Strive for shape. As you work the contrast, pay attention to how highlights and shadows define the shape of your objects. You’ll notice that from some directions, shadows might wrap around your object more than others, defining roundness or edges more effectively.

Once you have your placement and lighting set, you can get started with your still life. You may choose to start with a loose, gestural sketch just to get yourself into the flow of your project. Try to capture the basic shapes before any of the details. You’ll be focusing on shapes, proportion and distance to neighboring objects, and lighting. You don’t need anything fancy for this sketch. For this type of project, I usually prefer charcoal and a giant sketchpad. Charcoal is much softer and easier to work with value and the giant sketchpads are generally pretty cheap.

Tips:

1. You might have a hard time deciding which way you want your still life objects placed. Use your cell phone to take images of several different setups. When you have photos that you can flip through easily, you can pick the one you like best and reset the objects to match your favorite photo.
2. Your cell phone might come in handy again if your project runs long and you need your dining room table back for your next meal. Take a photo of the setup, complete with lighting, so that you can take down your still life and then reassemble it again later.
3. It isn’t necessary to have your drop sheet lie perfectly flat. Leaving a few folds here and there adds another element of interest.