How to Draw a Still Life in Charcoal of Sugar Bowl and Tea Pitcher

This is my art set up or display for a live drawing.  I have my drawing pad to the left and my still life display to the right.  I am left handed and by setting up this display as so it free's my right hand to make comparative measurements.  I have cut out a cardboard box.  A hole is cut at the top of the box to create an opening to cast light and shadow on the display.

This is the beginning stage the line drawing.  I have drawn in contour lines to outline the form.

I have drawn in the details at this stage.  However, there is no values created through shading at this point.

Now I have taken the time to shade in the values, especially the background.  Also you may notice the cast shadow is formed.

This is the final stage.  If you observe diligently, I have refined the details by darkening the values even more.  At the bottom of the photo there are my drawing tools.  I used a skewer stick to measure my subject.  I have in the picture a paper stump, willow charcoal sticks, sand paper to sharpen my charcoal, chamois cloth and eraser.   I did not use any graphite on this drawing only charcoal although they are with the supplies.

Process of Still Life Painting Pear and Apple

Last week I started on another still life painting.  I was inspired on a new technique to shift in a different direction in the way I paint.  I wanted to expose more of my brush strokes in my painting.  I am still learning how to paint more in a impressionistic style with  the use of broken color.  I took an old soft pastel painting I did and changed the back ground color.to more of an aqua blue. I did not use a palette knife, instead I only used a flat brush and a liner brush for details.

In the first stage I diluted brown wash of acrylic to tone the paper.  The paper is a Canson mixed media.  I used a flat brush to produce the line drawing of the forms.  I also establish the shadow maps for the dark values to be blocked in later.

In stage two I continued to use a flat brush however a had more brown paint than water in the mixed to get a darker value for the shadow zones.  Also I establish the highlight zones by allowing the lightest value to be left exposed.  At this stage not only a dark value is blocked in but also a middle value is blocked.

In stage three I premixed my paint into 4 groups blues, reds, greens, and light values of brown. I always use a palette knife to mixed my color out.  I'am using glass to mix my colors on and lay out. 

Stage four I started to add color to the background using the blue values I had premixed earlier.

Finally I added more color the values of green red and browns. 

 "Pair & Apple © DWeaver Art are completed done in acrylic 6 x 6 on mixed media Canson paper.

Still Life Acrylic Painting with Blue Background

"Barber Tools" done in acrylic 8 x 10 copyright © DWeaver Art

Still Life Acrylic Painting of Flowers in a Bottle

"Purple Curtain" Still life done in acrylic 6 x 6 on Canson watercolor paper © DWeaver Art 

How to Paint and Set up a Still Life Part 1

"Ceramic Container with Egg" 10cm x 10cm in Acrylic ©  DWeaverArt

It has been a little while since I've done a still life painting from from life.  Like all of my painting I enjoy the process from inspiration to the complete creation.  This is no different however, to be open with you while working on this still life painting I was a little bit disappointed in the process because I was being a little impatient and I came very close to throwing in the towel figuretively speaking.  I had never done a realistic painting this small and during the process it was not looking like I wanted it to be.  My experience as a painter help me to remember every time I do a painting during it's process it never looks like what I expect it to be.  As you can see it turned out very good.  

Here is how I accomplished this painting.  I used a cardboard box. Then I used a box cutter to cut the top flap and side of the box.  I used some fabric gray and black to creation a back drop.  Finally, I used my drawing lamp which bends and pivots to provide a light source.

All of my realistic painting I start out with a brown undertone painting.  In this process I want to establish the very dark tones and middle values which provided a guideline for the paint intensity. Intensity takes a look at how bright or dull a color is. I used a liner bush and a flat brush.  Thank you for taking the view my art blog.  I truly appreciate it.  If you are interested in purchasing this painting then please email me at deeweaver15gmail.com 

Still Life Drawing in Charcoal

This is a still life drawing of a hair brush, bottle of Listerine and a barber brush. This drawing was done with  2H graphite pencil B4 charcoal pencil and vine charcoal.

Vases and Cup Still Life

Still life drawing can help improve your drawing skills

Vases and still life is a drawing I produced last year early in 2014 on a Friday night. I was inspired to drawing this because I wanted to improve in the skill of finding the correct porportions and drawing for real life instead of drawing form a photograph.  In college that was all we did it seemed was draw and paint still life.  We did it so such I grew to hate it but now my mindset has changed to like it.  For those of you how now have that old mindset I used to have toward still life well think again. It is a wonderful exercise in grooming your drawing skill and developing a better drawing eye.  I now have a better appreciation for drawing still lifes because it helps me to drawing better by seeing proportions and angles properly.  The more I draw from still life the better I will be in capturing the form or forms in view of my sight.