Setting up a still life
- Choose objects: mix geometric forms (cube, cylinder, cone, sphere: a box, a bottle, a funnel, a ball) with natural forms (fruit, leaves, a shell). A cloth (drapery) adds soft folds.
- Arrange them: overlap some objects, vary their heights, and leave spaces of different sizes. Avoid lining them up in a row.
- One light: a lamp or window from one side, a little above. One light gives clear light and shadow.
- One viewpoint: sit in the same spot every time. If you move, the shapes change.
Blocking in and measuring
- Draw very light lines. Fit each object inside a simple box or oval.
- Measure by sight: hold a pencil at arm's length, elbow straight, one eye closed. Mark the height of one object with your thumb, then see how many times it fits into another. Example: the bottle is 1.6 times the box.
- Check angles by holding the pencil level or upright and comparing edges.
- Draw ellipses for round tops and bottoms; the bottom ellipse is rounder than the top one when you look down on the object.
- Only when shapes and sizes are right, start shading.
Light and shade: the tone ladder
- Highlight: the brightest spot, facing the light directly. Leave the paper white.
- Light: the lit side of the object.
- Half-tone: where the form turns away from the light; a middle grey.
- Core shadow: the darkest band on the object itself, just past the turning edge.
- Reflected light: a little light bounced back from the table into the shadow side. It is lighter than the core shadow but darker than the half-tone.
- Cast shadow: the shadow the object throws on the table. It points away from the light, is darkest and sharpest where the object touches the table (the contact shadow), and gets softer further away.
A cube shows flat planes: one light face, one mid face, one dark face. A cylinder shows tones in vertical bands. A sphere shows them in curved bands.
Pencils
H pencils (2H, H) are hard and light; B pencils (2B, 4B, 6B) are soft and dark. Build tone in layers with hatching, cross-hatching or smooth shading. Draw folds of drapery as alternating light ridges and dark valleys.
Try it at home
Put a white cup, an egg and a box on a table next to a window or a desk lamp, with the room lights off. Draw them in 20 minutes: block in (5 min), find the light (2 min), shade the darks first (8 min), then half-tones and highlights (5 min). Next, move the lamp lower and draw again: the shadows grow longer. For full colour, keep the same tone ladder: highlights pale and warm, shadows darker, cooler and less bright.
Key formulas and definitions
- Still life = non-moving objects + one light + one viewpoint
- Order of work: arrange → block in → measure → light and shade → details
- Tone ladder: highlight → light → half-tone → core shadow → reflected light → cast shadow
- Cast shadow points away from the light; lower light = longer shadow
- Pencils: H = hard/light, B = soft/dark (2H, HB, 2B, 4B, 6B)
- Drapery fold = light ridge + dark valley
Worked examples
1. The lamp is on the left. On which side of a ball will the cast shadow fall?
On the right, away from the lamp. Light travels in straight lines, so the ball blocks it on the far side.
2. A student shades the whole shadow side of a sphere one flat dark tone. What is missing?
The core shadow and reflected light. The darkest band should be just past the turning edge, with slightly lighter reflected light near the bottom edge, where light bounces up from the table.
3. Your thumb mark shows the cup is 3 cm tall at arm's length and the bottle is 7.5 cm. How many cups tall is the bottle?
7.5 ÷ 3 = 2.5. The bottle is two and a half cups tall, so draw it 2.5 times the height of the cup.
Common mistakes
- Outlining every object with one dark, hard line. Real objects show edges by tone change, not a black outline.
- Drawing shadows on the same side as the light. Shadows always fall away from the light.
- Making reflected light as bright as the lit side. It is only a little lighter than the core shadow.
- Shading before the shapes and sizes are correct. Block in and measure first.