A still life refers to a painting or drawing which is made by looking at real-life objects. In this episode, Martha creates her own still life drawing of a saucepan and a jug.
Still life
Still life art is drawing or painting objects that are arranged in a certain way.
These objects can be anything from fruit to vases.
The aim is to look and think about the shapes and size of the objects in front of you.
Where you look from
In a still life class, everyone will draw the same objects in a different way.
This is because where you stand to look at the objects will change the angle that you view them at.
So, your drawing could look very different to someone else's in the room.
The same still life, looked at from different places
Image caption, Here is a bowl of apples. You can see an apple on the left, outside of the bowl. You can not see the top of any apple.
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Light and shadow
Looking closely at these objects can help you to think about the light that is hitting them and their colours.
Image caption, If we make the picture black and white it is easier to see the lighter parts and darker parts
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The details
Still life improves your looking skills and is a great way to start drawing.
The objects will not move unlike a person! We can take our time, slow down and notice the details of things.
Look at all the different colours in a red apple. Can you see red, orange and yellow?
Paul Cézanne
Many famous artists have explored still life drawing and painting.
Paul Cézanne was famous for his still life paintings. He didn’t believe in drawing out the shapes first, instead he used paint straight away.
Paul Cézanne
Learn more about Paul Cézanne and his still life paintings.
More on Observing and imagination
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