Hi there,

I want to continue of this theme of still life in this post and why one should draw and practice with still life.

Drawing What You See

Over time as we look at the same thing over and over again, we build a simplified version of an object in our head. And since most of the seeing is done in the brain - we start looking at the world as caricatures. For those not used to seeing the face in all its complexities, the mental model of a face is similar to a caricature (like a smiley) than the real face.

Most people draw a house as a simple four walled thing with a window and a door. But most houses around us are anything but as simple as that. They have many details small and large which make up their “character”. In fact very thing shaped in nature has its own character.

It is important to practice copying from nature to be able to really look at an object for a long time and understand it in all its complexities.

Learning Shape and Form

What better way to learn shape and form than to take a still life object and simplify it using the basic shapes and forms. Simplifying shape and form is one of the most important skills an artist can learn.

Shape is the 2d design of an object or scene, and form is 3d design.

Most times a person, or object can be recognized simply by their silhouette - and therefore getting the shape right is very important. If the shape is wrong then the object might not be recognized. However that doesn’t mean that every detail of the silhouette is to be copied. One must simplify it so that it would fit in the design of the composition.

The same goes with the 3d form of the object - which is required to give depth to a drawing/painting. Detail should be embellishment, the correctness of form should be priority while learning.

Of course one must also learn to use these tools effectively in composition.

More on this later… Have a great week,

Abhishek (art noob)