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

Reflection:

In my drawing I used scribbling to add value. My technique was inspired by some of Henry Moore's works where he does something similar, and good example of this would be in his hand drawings. For me this technique of scribbling was easiest to change values as subtle as possible and make the objects seem like they pop more. Although the technique helped to create value and value changes, it was also the most fun and relaxing for me.

After comparing my pre-instructional drawing with my final still life I see a huge difference in the outcome and the technique used. One of the biggest things I notice is how I eliminated the need for smudging and adapted a new technique, which in my opinion looks much better. Another thing I feel I learned is how to use angles and lines of reference to accurately place objects. These 2 things are where I see the largest improvement and also what I think made my final so much better than I had expected. A final thing I felt I learned was how to draw and shade a cylinder because this was something I struggled with at the beginning.

One of the necessary skills in creating a convincing still life is first of all placing the objects you are drawing correctly on the paper. You can do this by holding up your pencil as a line of reference to place things. It acts similar to a scale in the way you can use it to measure as well. Along with this is the skill of using angles to your advantage. Making sure there are no random lines is key and lining up the objects in correct reference to one another helps a lot. This is another skill you can use your pencil for to improve your still life. A third skill is the ability to gradually change values to blend dark to light without an easily visible seam. Using a dark and lighter dark, middle, mild, and light value can help a lot in making your still life much more realistic and smooth. A final necessary skill is small but still important. After adding shadows it's important to slightly shade a space below the objects in order to make them look less like they are floating and more like they are sitting on the floor or table etc. These skills helped me a lot in creating my final.

Pre Instructional Drawing:

The Artist's Hands 1981

Ballpoint pen on Bockingford White Wove paper

Henry Moore

I chose to use a technique like Henry Moore's for multiple reasons. First of all I like the way his drawings look when he uses this sort of scribble technique. There aren't any strait lines or barriers and the lines add texture as well as a different kind of value which appeals to me. His drawing have a sort of rough feel when I look at them. I also chose this technique because I found it the most simple for blending light and dark values without a visible border. This made adding value more simple and smooth. Finally I also chose to use Henry Moore's scribble technique because I had the most fun with it and found it kind of relaxing not having to try and be perfect and try to keep a pattern. Out of all the different techniques I tried this one stood out to me the most and I'm glad I chose it.