5 Minute Creativity: Arrange a Still Life Scene to Illustrate

1. Arrange a Still Life: As you can see, I've gathered some objects that I found at home and I made a diverse selection. I picked them in different sizes and with interesting forms. Now that I have a table full of all sorts of home treasures, I can start playing with them and arranging compositions that we're going to draw. Creating a still-life composition is as exciting as drawing it because it actually feels like you're creating the piece of physical art just by gathering these objects together and placing them in relation to one another. At this point, you can arrange your own still-life composition from objects you have at home, or you can use mine. I'm creating a few different still-life arrangements, varying in their complexity from easy ones to more complex ones. I'll photograph them for you and you will find them in the class resources section where you can download them and use them for your still-life drawing. Of course, pick the one that suits you best. If you're a beginner, pick the easy ones, and if you're experienced, start with more complex ones. With that being said, I absolutely encourage you to create your own still life composition, because it will be completely different experience to sit in front of it, to observe it from a distance, to measure it, and then create a final drawing. The still-life that I'll be drawing for this class is going to be a simple one because I want to be able to cover all the important basics. Now that I've arranged the composition that I'll be working with, I can make my drawing setup. Since I don't have an easel, I can just use two chairs, one is for sitting and another one for holding my drawing board. I'll need a pen, eraser, ruler, and a simple chopstick for measuring. I'll explain more about it later. By the way, this board is nothing fancy. It's just a piece of wood that is going to hold my paper in the upper position. The main reason for this whole setup is to be able to create a more accurate drawing, have a better viewpoint, and also to be able to measure correctly with my arm in a straight position. Besides all that, as an addition, I'll be using a photograph of this composition that is taken from the same viewpoint. It's going to be my guide in the first phases of drawing because it's going to help me better visualize where to place objects on the paper. I've drawn a grid system on my photograph by dividing it horizontally and vertically in half and then dividing those four bars in half once more. Now, I'm going to do the same thing on the paper. It's not at all necessary to do all this, to use a photograph and a grid, but if you're a beginner, it can help you a lot in these first stages, where you're not confident how and where to start with a completely blank piece of paper. All right. We can now start observing, measuring, and drawing.