How can we bring all of our drawing skills together to create a realistic still life drawing?
Assignment Part A: Use your viewfinder to create 4 thumbnail sketches as possibilities for a final drawing.
New page of your sketchbook— Title it:
Thumbnail Composition Sketches
Draw four 4”wide x 3”tall rectangles on one page of your sketchbook. You can hold your viewfinder and sketch either horizontal (landscape) orientation OR vertical (portrait) orientation. Just turn your viewfinder & sketchbook.
Sketch basic shapes of main forms, look for and sketch:
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balance of positive forms and negative space
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basic values - light - medium - dark and sketch in
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focal point or emphasis
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path of movement
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ASSIGNMENT PART B:
Evaluate your series of 4 thumbnail composition sketches according to the rubric. Indicate your top 2 and revisit them with your viewfinder. Make any necessary revisions.
COMPOSITION (critieria from the project rubric)
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Objects are arranged to fill the space with a small margin or padding at top, bottom and sides;
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An object may extend beyond the paper edge as long as the drawing stays in balance;
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Composition has left-right & top-bottom balance;
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Composition has negative-positive space balance.
Select final composition. Move to that space at your table and make any final adjustments to your thumbnail sketch.
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WARM UP FOR DRAWING IN SKETCHBOOK
Blind / Modified Contour LIne Drawing
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Working on larger drawing paper - with a harder (lighter) graphite pencil to start.
Watch video - start at 1:44. Let's layout the base for the drawing.
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Quick, Loose, Light sketch in of basic contour lines of objects.
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Check and re-check for accuracy of proportions and scale of objects before finalizing/ refining edges. Sighting.
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Check for accuracy of spacing of objects. Positive + Negative spaces.
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Lightly sketch interior contours.
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Continue sketching main forms and large general interior contours. Draw outlines of major shadows on objects and cast shadows.
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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Assignment Part C:
1. Finish the Still Life Drawing + Shading Techniques Video start at 3:30
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2. Set Goals for yourself for your final drawing. In your Sketchbook on the thumbnail page List 3 drawing skills you have learned and describe how you will apply those in your drawing.
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3.Review Steps So Far
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Erin R.
Wesley
4. Beginning Stages of Drawing
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Check base drawing for accuracy - compare to thumbnail composition.
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Check proportion - use sighting, positive + negative spaces
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Check accuracy of forms - ellipses, contours, angles
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Establish light source and value placement - lay out lights and shadows -
2B + 4B pencils
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Assignment Part E: Mid Drawing Reflection Use the Still Life Mid Drawing Reflection Form linked here to reflect on your drawing so far.
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Assignment Part D
Middle Stages of Drawing
start shading - midtones - shading techniques - beginning layers - contour shading - good time to add protection under hand to prevent smudging - work all over
**eraser is a drawing tool - soften edges, clean or refine edges
refrain from outlining
move onto 4b - lay in some darker values
preserve white of page for brightest highlights
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End Stages of Drawing
build layers - smooth transitions
clean up - erase smudges, extraneous marks
Rubric Drawing a Still Life
_____ /5 Composition - objects are arranged to fill space and create a balanced composition (positive and negative space), draws all objects as seen, consideration for focal point/rule of thirds, pathway of movement for eye.
_____ / 5 Proportion + Scale- objects are in correct proportion to one another in terms of size(scale) and spacing.
_____ / 5 Shading – All objects are consistently shaded to indicate a light source, mid tones, and shadows helping to render realistic form. Ideally includes 7-9 recognizable value steps. Employs shading techniques as appropriate to indicate texture or pattern (hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, random hatching or smudging).
_____ / 5 Craftsmanship – Work is clean and carefully rendered – all marks are intentional, edges of page are clean and intact - student demonstrates effort and care toward work.
_____ / 5 Effort/Studio habits/Reflection -student attempts to employ skills - is receptive to feedback, focused on task spending majority of class time engaged and focused on the work, treats others, tools and space with respect.
______ /5 Student can articulate learning including 3 skills and utilizing at least 3 art vocabulary appropriately.
5- Meets and or exceeds all expectations – adept application of skills
4- Meets most expectations – is consistently demonstrating these skills
3- Meets a few expectations – still working to develop these skills
2- Attempts to employ skills – needs more practice
1-No evidence of these skills exists yet
Assignment Part F: Reflect + Share
Open a blank powerpoint. 2 Slides only!
Slide 1 is an image of your drawing.
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PHOTO TIPS: try to frame your drawing so that you don't see anything but the drawing, avoid shadows on the image- sometimes helps to prop up. If you cant avoid getting other background in the picture, edit it on your computer and crop background out.
Slide 2 is a reflection.
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EXAMPLE
What do you notice about how
narrative starts off?
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What does the narration tell you
about the artist's drawing skills?
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What do you notice about the
terminology used?
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Title: Drawing a Still Life
Refer to the rubric above and write a reflection describing how you addressed the following points on the rubric -
Composition - How did you approach organizing your composition (viewfinder/balancing positive/negative space)
Proportion and scale - (describe use of sighting to get correct proportions and spacing of objects)
Shading (Use of drawing pencils and shading techniques to create a range of values)
Any other drawing techniques you have learned and applied to this drawing (modified contour line, seeing negative spaces, etc)
Craftsmanship
This is worth points on the project rubric.
Upload your still life drawing reflection to this padlet gallery under your period section:
