Final Still Life Drawing

Essential Question: What are the necessary skills to create a convincing still life drawing?

Purpose:

• To create a still-life drawing that demonstrates understanding of angles & ellipses in perspective, along with using a chosen and conscious mark-making technique to describe form;

• To understand value by creating a good range of values between black & white to help make the objects appear 3D;

• To demonstrate quality craftsmanship and good composition skills in a drawing.

Artists Studied: Henry Moore, Giorgio Morandi, Vincent van Gogh, Winslow Homer, John Whalley

1. How would you describe the types of marks you used to show value in your drawing? Which artist’s technique (Henry Moore, Vincent Van Gogh, Giorgio Morandi), did you use in your drawing? How did this kind of mark-making help you with creating value and value changes? Please explain.

I used the hatching technique. This was the easiest for me to learn which helped me to be able to make my drawing look 3D. It was good to use this because it made it easier to add value. It was the same technique that Giorgio Morandi used sometimes. I was able to add value and make my still life look good.

2. Look at your pre-instructional drawing (the one you did in your sketchbook) and your final still life drawing. What do you notice and what have you learned as a result of doing this drawing unit?

I noticed that I started off outlining all of the objects in my drawing. I learned that adding value will look better than outlining and it will make it pop. I also learned that you need to add blending to make the art look 3D. I also didn’t add enough shading to make you able to tell objects apart.

3. The Essential Question of this project is: What are the necessary skills to create a convincing still life drawing? How would you respond to this question? Name and explain at least four things. (remember to consider the practice exercises leading up to the final drawing--imitating artist’s styles of mark-making, 1pt and 2pt perspective and perspective of cylinder, using value to help show volume in can/block drawings).

To make a successful still life that looks realistic you need to practice adding value. That is the hardest part. You also need to practice drawing accurate objects that are accurate. You need to research how to use a certain style of shading. Lastly you need to give it time and take as many tries as you can.