The Sensational Still Life!

Last January, I posted "How to create a rockin' still life!" HERE on the blog.  And a couple of weeks ago, at my NYSATA annual convention, I put the info in that post to good use in a workshop I taught, called The Sensational Still Life.  Unfortunately, attendance was light.  There was a prediction of incoming snow/bad weather across the state, and the convention schedule had been adjusted so that people could leave early.  So a keynote speaker was moved a 1/2 day earlier, for example, along with changes in other workshop times.  As a result, there were schedule conflicts that hadn't previously existed.  But that's OK, because the schedule change meant that everyone got home safely, before the snow. And the small group that showed up for the workshop were willing to participate and hopefully had a worthwhile experience. 

We talked about how to set up a still life that would interest your students and offer opportunities for a variety of dynamic compositions.  The various guidelines are all in the previously posted post, and also in a google doc handout that you can find via the Document Weblinks tab on the top of the blog, if you view the blog in your browser. Also in the Document Weblinks is a link to my PowerPoint presentation that I used as a companion to my handout and presentation at the workshop.  Feel free to use, but please give me credit for the PowerPoint and the associated images. 

The little still life setups in this post are ones that were set up by workshop participants during the hands-on portion of the workshop, and they drawings in the post were also done by workshop attendees. 

We used viewfinders and learned to "squint like a pirate" to find interesting compositions.  Some attendees did thumbnail sketches, and others dove right in to create a drawing from the still life they had set up.  They were allowed to interpret as they saw fit, simplifying when desired, or leaving things out that didn't suit their composition, or altering colors or patterns in the fabrics to best suit the artwork..

Here, you can see a participant making use of a viewfinder, while looking at her still life arrangement. 

And, on the right below, and the top of the post, you can see the dynamic composition she ultimately created using some chalk pastels.

Again, you can check out the post HERE for more information and companion images, and/or you can access the handout and companion PowerPoint presentation via my Document Weblinks tab, or you can access the handout RIGHT HERE! 

Lovely Lilacs Revisited

I subbed in my former classroom for a day recently, so that the current teacher could deal with a medical concern.  I had fresh lilacs growing in my yard, which, when I was still teaching, I brought in every year for a one-day lesson for my younger students, usually the first grade.  I told the teacher I'd love to paint the lilacs with her students, with her permission.  The 2nd grade students had just finished a project, so rather than have me start her next project for her, she gave me the go-ahead to do these paintings.

So I brought in a batch of the lilacs and put them in vases.  The kids looked at and smelled the flowers, examined how they grew in bunches, and how the leaves came to a point.  We looked at several different vases in the room, with various shapes, and discussed how even though each one was different from the next, the shapes were all symmetrical.  Some were opaque, and some were transparent, and we looked at that, too.  Then we talked about how we didn't want vases of flowers floating in the air, so we wanted to place them on a table in our drawings. 

The kids drew a vase, stems, leaves, and table, using crayons on construction paper (I gave them a selection of colors of paper to choose from: lilac, pale blue, soft green, pale peach, and soft yellow.  Looking at these photos, I realize that if anyone chose the yellow, somehow I didn't photograph it!)

Before the kids came in, I mixed up some tempera paints in disposable cups with various lilac colors, some with more pink, some with more blue, some lighter, and some darker.  I discussed with the kids how there are many different varieties of lilacs, with colors from white to purple to pink to blue, and that they could use any of the paint on their tables for their flowers.

I gave the kids long-handled cotton swabs to paint their flowers.  We noted that the tip spread out as is was used, making it easier to paint the flowers than with the small tip we began with! 

We had just 40 minutes, including the time I needed, as a sub, to review the class list of names, and time to clean up.  (Clean up was pretty easy, since the swabs were simply thrown away, and at the end of the day I also threw away the disposable paper paint dishes.  We put the paintings in the drying rack and did a quick table cleanup and we were done!)

As a veteran art teacher, I didn't generally like to repeat all the exact same projects every year.  But there were some lessons that, with some simple variations, were an annual ritual.  The lilacs were one of these.  There were staff members that looked forward to seeing them hanging in the hall every year, and since they were quick and easy, and made everyone happy, I loved to oblige by repeating this project.  They look so fresh and spring-like, and sometimes I think I can smell the lilacs when I look at at them!  Thank you to the current art teacher for allowing me and the students to have this fun break from her curriculum!

Truth or fiction: Drawing & Painting from Life vs Photos

 Photography can be a funny thing.  You can select different cameras and different lenses with different focal lengths, totally flattening or curving space and altering perspective. You can adjust how much or little of your image is in focus.  You can adjust color balance.  And that's just when you are taking the picture!  Then there's editing... Consider, for example, my photo above.  The only editing done after-the-fact was cropping it and flipping it upside down for hopefully a surreal effect. 

So when you draw or paint from a photograph, attempting to make something look 'real', what are you really getting?  It very much depends on all the choices made by the photographer.  I'll admit, that while I'm a big fan of working from direct observation, I recognize that sometimes it is not convenient.  And my painting style does not aim at photo-realism, anyhow.  I prefer to capture the spirit and energy of my subject (I hope).  I'm sharing the paintings below, all mine, all done from photos for various reasons, to help me make a point a little later in this post.

The image above is of my son when he was in college, painted at least 6 years ago, and is acrylic  on canvas and incorporates collage (bits of colored glass, odd little toys and doodads, string and yarn, and a bass guitar string on the frame).  I used the collage to help capture the spirit of my son.

And below is a painting I did several years ago, from a photo I took while scuba diving when I was young and single.  It also acrylic, on Masonite, with a shell and coral collage on the frame.  I don't think I have to explain why I worked from a photo.

This oil painting on canvas below, done decades ago, is of a scene that I regularly saw while on a toll highway, especially during drives too and from my college town.  One day, with a blustery sky, traffic was light so I pulled over and took a quick photo.  Again, there was no way to paint the scene live.  One little photo was all I had to work from.

The acrylic painting of flowers below actually began from observation, but as the flowers were quickly fading, and I wasn't done, I took photos to help me complete the painting. 

But I've been thinking more about observational work lately, and I'll tell more about why this is on my mind in my next blog post, in a few days.  But meanwhile, I've talked before on this blog about drawing from observation, in particular here.  And I want to dwell on why I think it is such an important thing to teach.

Below are two photos taken from exactly the same location, totally unedited.  Two different cameras, two different focal length lenses.  Which one is "right"? Both?  Or neither?

Let's say you wanted to draw/paint this location in the two photos above this paragraph, or the two photos below, also shot with two different cameras/focal lengths.  How would you approach it?  Do you take a photo and bring it back to your studio to put on canvas or paper?  But which image do you select?  Which is the "right" one?  If you set up an easel on the dock above, or the walkway/bridge below, and drew what you saw, what would it look like?  The first photo or the second?  Or perhaps neither of them.  Personally, in the top pair, I prefer the more dramatic perspective of the first photo.  I'm not so sure about the pair below. If I drew the dramatic perspective of the left-hand photo, I'd be concerned that it might look as thought the bridge walkway was tilting, because of the sharp angle of the shadow lines. 

 Certainly, if I want to do drawings or paintings of these locations, and am unable to draw or paint on location, I can take photos and choose what I prefer to use for my composition.  But what if you are using a photo someone else took?  Then, hasn't the photographer made the aesthetic decision about how to view the scene? And if you are trying to make it look "real", what does that even mean??  Which one of the photos in the pairs is the way it "really" looked?

Or maybe you've got a drawing just the way you want it, but you are in your studio trying to recall the colors of the scene you are painting.  Below are two different photos, taken from exactly the same location, with the same camera, but a different color balance setting.  Which one is "right"?  Which one would you use for reference for your painting?  Since I took these photos just a couple of days ago, I can tell you, neither one is a good representation of the colors I saw in the water that day.  How better to get it right than to paint it while actually looking at it?  So that the colors you perceive with your personal vision influence what you choose to put on your canvas or paper?

Here's another pair of pics, taken within seconds of each other, with two different camera settings.  Which picture represents what it really looked like that evening?  It was a pretty sunset, but again, neither one of these photos is a true representation.  Of course if I tried to set up my easel outside and paint what I saw, there would be two problems: first of all, the light was diminishing quickly, so it would have been a challenge to see what I was doing without falling off the dock into the lake.  Second, the color was incredibly fleeting.  Five minutes later it was dramatically different, and ten minutes later it was gone completely.  So I would have to add my personal interpretation, since, light and color change so rapidly.  Case in point would obviously be paintings by Monet, of a cathedral, or a haystack, for example, where he returned and painted the same scene many times with different light quality. 

Look at the incredible color of that sky in these images below!  Do you think this is real?  I took both these photos, so I can answer the question.  The photo is not edited, but still, the answer is NO.  I used a polarizing filter on my camera lens, which, when used appropriately, will substantially darken a sky, and cause white clouds, for example, to dramatically stand out.  (It will also remove glare from water or elsewhere.)  So would it be wrong to paint the sky this fabulous blue?  Of course not!  It is your artistic CHOICE.  But to paint the sky that color simply BECAUSE THAT IS THE COLOR IN THE PHOTO is just blindly copying, not creative decision-making.

In recent years, as I've looked at exhibited drawings and paintings by high school students, it seems there is a lot of skill, beyond what I was ever trained to do: the kids have learned to copy, to render, to carefully shade, and their work is often impeccable, and photographic in detail.  But what I have missed is the spirit that shows me who the artist is inside.  Many of these carefully rendered works of art seem to have the life sucked right out of them.  I would like to see the energy of a Kandinsky, the joy of a Matisse, the whimsy of a Miro, the emotional warmth of a Cassatt, the inner glow of a Rembrandt, the sense of inner light of a Vermeer, the mystery of a Di Chirico, the quiet of a Hopper, the angst of... the humor of.... the anger of.... (You fill in the blanks; I could go on and on.)

It's been 30 years since I was a high school art teacher, and I realize the world has changed.  But, when I walk through a major museum like the Art Institute of Chicago, or the Brooklyn Museum, or MoMA, or the Met, or even a tiny museum like our local gem The Hyde Collection, I am still most moved by those works of art that have a sense of the spirit of the artist.  I am not moved by a technically perfect piece that has no soul, no emotional connection, that is nothing more than an impeccable copy of someone's photograph.  (I think that's why I love elementary art students - because they have not yet un-learned the joy of creating.)

I think we can never re-claim that spirit, that joy, unless we STOP depending on using other people's photographs for the primary source material for our art.  Our kids need to look up from their screens and start to really look and SEE what is in the world around them.  If you are teaching kids of any age, set up still life arrangements to work from, have students take turns as models, take your classes on mini field trips outside to draw, give them mirrors to draw themselves, have them, as my college drawing teacher assigned for us, do endless drawings of their hands.  (Actually, the specific instruction was "endless articulating cube studies of your hands", but I digress.)  Have them do blind contour drawings of all sorts of organic objects.  Bring in taxidermy animals for drawing source material.  Have them look at and draw their feet. Borrow the human skeleton from the science department of your school to be a model, put a hat or scarf or sunglasses on it; pose it.  Have students open a random drawer or cabinet and draw the contents; have them pick flowers and examine them prior to drawing them.  Have them draw spontaneously with a felt tip marker or ball point pen or even a crayon.   If they MUST work from a photo for reasons like the ones I had for my paintings above, don't constantly resort to having them graph the photo to get it "perfect".  (It is a good skill to learn, but remember, it is just a skill.)  Instead,  ask that they use the photos as a reference, a starting point, for creating a piece of art that reflects the artist inside.  This is my challenge to you all!

It is my hope that 50 or 100 years from now, when the next generations step into an art museum, that they see works created today that express the humanity of the artist, and that move them the way we are moved by, perhaps, that Picasso, or O'Keeffe, or van Gogh, or Klimt......  rather than seeing technically perfect pieces that lack a soul, and that fail to elicit any emotion from the observer.

Thanks for reading this massive post!  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

How to create a rockin' still life!

 My previous post, on the topic of observational drawing, received a lot views, and many compliments for my 'Matisse goldfish still life'.  So I thought maybe I would explain how to set up a really killer still life, that your students will want to draw.  I've set up many fun and unusual still lifes over the years, and while I unfortunately don't have photos of them to show, I have lots of great hints to share.  So today I set up this still life (above) to show you how to proceed.

 1) Choosing the objects:
Choose objects with interesting shapes, but not so complex that the kids will be frightening to draw.   You may want to choose a theme for the still life when you are picking objects.  (More on this in a bit.)  Think about the colors of the objects.  Will they work together?  What media are you using?

Where do I find these objects?  Go to yard sales, garage sales, or flea markets.  You can find silly toys and oddball knick-knacks, often for 10 or 25 cents.  Or check out the dollar store.  That's a good place to buy fake flowers and plants.  Or just look around your home! 

 

Above on the left, the cookie jar (or is it an ice bucket?) was a yard sale find.  The students are fascinated by it.  Mr. Coconut was picked up many years ago in the Bahamas.  The basket on the left below was a freebie, and the puppet in it was made by me.  On the right, a flea market find.

 Choose objects with a wide variety of shapes and sizes, organic and geometric, some with a vertical orientation, and some horizontal, natural and man-made.  

 

 An object like the old violin case below (which belonged to my grandfather) is wonderful in a still life, because it can create some negative space, and set up some environmental boundaries.  You can drape fabric through it, and tuck small objects inside it. 

2) Setting it up:
You may want to select items based on a theme.  For example, the objects in the photo below were all used, along with other objects (such as the dive helmet), in a still life that was widely based on the theme of the ocean and the beach.  The dive fins, mask, and snorkel all came from the dollar store.

Pick some fabric remnants or papers to use for creating negative space (background) of the still life.  With the beachy objects above, I used fabrics that were shades of blue, turquoise, peach and tan.  To create some vertical lines, I draped strings of 'pearls', and let them rest into and over seashells.  A pail turned on its side had sand-colored fabric spilling out, with some shells and toy fish on it.  There were toy boats, various toy sunglasses, a pair of flip-flops, and more. 

Pick a good place to put the still life, where it can be left set up for a while.  This can be on a counter-top if necessary, as above; but even better, put it in a central place, where it will be easily seen by everyone.  A great option is to put the still life on a rolling cart, so it can easily be moved out of the way when not in use.  I 'rescued' a little cart from an old (and obsolete) overhead projector.  It had a fold down shelf, and I put the shelf up to create more surface area to use.  I also had a larger cart in my classroom that was big enough for a large complex still life.

Create a background for the still life.  If your still life is on a counter, this could be as simple as tacking a piece of construction paper or some fabric to the wall behind the still life, as above.  Remember if you are using live plants in your still life, to plan your time accordingly. 

If your still life is going to be in a central location and you want it to be 'in the round', cut the edges of one side of a large cardboard box, and place in in the middle of the cart or table. 

 

A still life where all the objects are lined up on one level is usually boring.  Create levels with various sizes of boxes, or containers, that can be draped with fabric or paper.  After the still life is draped, objects can be put on top of the box, or in the crook of the angles where created where the box meets the surface of the table. 

Tape the fabric in place, and drape it with fabric or cover it with paper (construction paper or subtly patterned wallpaper) so it creates a 2-sided backdrop.  Think carefully about the lines you are creating with your drapes, and make sure any patterned fabric doesn't overwhelm the objects you've selected.   I suggest that you stay away from white or black fabric.  Make sure, if it will be viewed 'in the round', that all sides of the box get covered.  

 Above and below are the same boxes in the same position as shown above.  I also added both an upside down Cool Whip container and a cylindrical bottle laying on its side under  the drapes.

 Attach the fabric so it doesn't come down!  For this still life, I used paper clips and masking tape.  Staples also will work well for anchoring your fabric. 

In the 'Matisse' still life above, I used an ice cream chair that I dragged in from home, to create a level on the still life.  I was able to place objects on the seat of the chair, and under the chair, plus use it for draping the many patterned fabrics that were integral in this Matisse still life.  The nice thing about a large multi-layered in-the-round still life like this one below is that every child who draws it will find a completely different composition, so you won't end up with a bunch of matching drawings or paintings.  (Boring!!!)  To see artwork created based on this still life, check out this post.  And to see more photos of the still life close-up, go to this post. 


The steps in front of a renovation supply store, below, served as nice levels for the 'still life' that I spotted as I was entering the store.  See?  This wouldn't have been as interesting to me to photograph if the objects had been placed on the same level.

3) Adding the objects:
Once you've gotten your backgrounds anchored, start adding your objects.  Pay attention to the angles and lines you create.  In the photos below, I noticed the fabric pretty much all fell in vertical lines on this side of the still life, so I started by adding the large, slightly diagonal horizontal, to break up the space. Then I began filling in with the other objects I had gathered.  Where possible, put loops of tape on the bottoms of the objects to keep them in place.  Add draped fibers or jewelry to create some directional lines.  And if you are using a rolling cart, I suggest  marking the floor with tape so that each time you bring out the cart, it goes into the same location.

4) Drawing with the aid of a viewfinder:
 Do I expect every student to draw every object?  No way!  This would throw them into a panic, and make art that is too busy.  I give them each a viewfinder, cut to correspond to the proportions of the paper we will be using.  So for example, for 9"x12" paper their viewfinder could be cut to 3"x4".  These I cut out of scraps of tagboard.  I usually let them choose whether to use it horizontally or vertically.  Using the viewfinder, they 'squint like a pirate' and hold it away from their face.  What they find in the viewfinder should fill the space of their paper.  I usually set a minimum, such as " you need to have at least 3 objects in your composition".  As the viewfinder is moved closer and farther away from the face, you'll create totally different compositions, as seen in the versions below: 

 

 Here's another side of the same still life setup, also pictured vertically at the top of the post.

 Or perhaps a close-up.  Make sure, if you are using objects with eyes, you consider which way they are looking.  You don't want the objects to all be looking off the paper, though you have to remember they might be viewed from a variety of angles, so you might need to vary. 

 And on this same small still life, there's yet another side, viewed from different perspectives.

 

 Note the directional lines on the fabric.  I contrasted it with horizontal object placement. 

 And still another side:

The nice thing about all this, of course, is that no two kids will end up with the same artwork.  Yay!

5) A few other final tips:

• Do I expect the kids to copy the pattern on the fabrics?  Absolutely not.  I explain the fabric is there to set a color mood for the still life.  They can eliminate or simplify fabric patterns in their drawings, and even change the color if it suits the artwork.  

• What about glassware and metallic objects?   Both can be scary for students.  Keep it simple!  For a fun idea, put patterned scarves under and behind glassware, and then put water inside the glassware.  Zoom WAY in to find and some lovely abstraction!

• Or what about trying a white-on white still life?  Look for white objects like eggs, a roll of toilet paper, and so on.  Put them all on a white draped background, and illuminate for shadows.  Have students explore the values with charcoal, or white conte or chalk on black paper.  

•  Try a still life using just geometric shapes on solid draped fabric.  How about using Legos or other geometric building toys?  Or use all white geometric shapes and let the kids turn them into buildings in a landscape.

• Which brings me to setting up a still life to represent a fake landscape.  Use layers of fabric to represent mountains, water, etc.  Use toy trees, boats, cars.   Hang some cotton stuffing on the sky for clouds.  This is fun when you live somewhere (like me) where the weather keeps you indoors for much of the school year.  Maybe you even want to throw in a toy Godzilla or alien!

• When selecting objects, pick things that the kids will have fun drawing.  Toys are terrific.  If it looks boring to you, you can bet it will be boring for them. 

• Can't set up a still life as I've described?  Set up mini-still lifes using cutaway shoe boxes; one per table.  In them, drape some fabric, and add Matchbox cars, or Happy Meal toys, or the little plastic animals you buy in bags in the dollar store.

•  Use artists for reference, depending on what you are doing.  Using glassware?  Look up Janet Fish.  For some gorgeous still paintings, look up the work of Rachel Ruysch, and consider adding some little bugs or lizards in your still life, as did she.  Or of course Cezanne, or Matisse, or van Gogh, or anyone else as suits your need.  

 That's it!!