Drawing Still Life and Nature
Senior 1 · Fine Arts
Drawing Still Life and Nature
Lesson 1 of 5
20 min
Before an architect draws a new school, before a fashion designer sketches a kitenge dress, and before a scientist records a plant found in Nyungwe Forest, each of them chooses a tool. A hard pencil gives a fine, pale line that is easy to erase; a stick of charcoal gives a velvety black that fills a large area in seconds; ink gives a line that cannot be rubbed out. Choosing the right tool is the first decision in every drawing, and it costs very little: most of what you need can be bought for a few hundred francs or made at home.
Two words carry this lesson. A medium (plural media) is the material that makes the marks, such as graphite, charcoal or ink. The support is the surface you draw on, such as paper, card or board.
Umutoni is making a drawing of a clay pot on a mat. Here is how she chooses her media, step by step.
A. A reed pen. (1) Cut a dry reed or thin bamboo stem, about as thick as a pencil, to 15 cm. (2) On a cutting board, cut one end at a long slant, cutting away from your body. (3) Trim the point flat so the tip is 2 to 3 mm wide. (4) Cut a slit about 1 cm up the middle of the tip; the slit holds the ink. (5) Dip it in ink and draw lines, dots and dashes. Press harder for a thicker line.
B. Charcoal sticks (with an adult). (1) Peel the bark off straight twigs about as thick as a pencil, from a plant known to be safe to burn. (2) Pack them into a small metal tin with a lid and make one small hole in the lid. (3) An adult places the tin in the hot embers of a cooking fire. Smoke comes out of the hole. (4) When the smoke stops, often after about an hour, the adult lifts the tin out with tongs. (5) Leave it closed until it is completely cold: opening it hot lets in air and the charcoal can catch fire.
C. A media test sheet. Rule six boxes on a page. In each box, test one medium: draw a line, a dark patch, a smudge and an erased mark. Label every box. Keep the sheet in your sketchbook as your own guide.
The Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) drew this wheat field in 1888 with a reed pen and ink, over a light pencil sketch.
Warning
Safety
Tip
"H is for hairline, B is for bold." Plan in H, shade in B. In a practical exam, test every medium on the corner of your paper before you use it on the drawing.
Explain the difference between a medium and a support, with one example of each.
Solution: the medium is what makes the marks, such as charcoal; the support is the surface the marks are made on, such as brown paper.
Put these pencils in order from the palest mark to the darkest: 2B, 4H, HB, 6B.
Solution: 4H, HB, 2B, 6B. H grades are hard and pale; B grades get softer and darker as the number rises.
Keza's charcoal drawing smudged when she put it in her bag. Give two ways to prevent this next time.
Solution: spray it lightly with fixative or hair spray (outdoors), and store it flat with a clean sheet of paper over it.
You are drawing on brown paper. Which media would you use for the shadows and which for the highlights? Why does this work well?
Solution: charcoal (or a soft B pencil) for the shadows and white chalk for the highlights. The brown paper already provides the middle value, so you only add the darks and the lights.
Why should you not try to make a very dark area by pressing hard with a 2H pencil?
Solution: a hard pencil cannot make a real black. Pressing hard only makes a shiny grey and dents the paper, and the dent will show if you erase. Use a soft pencil or charcoal instead.
Remember
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