Lesson B

Introduction:
Artists generally draw and paint certain types of subject matter. The most common categories are:
1. Landscape: countryside, mountains, oceans and cityscapes.
2. Portraits/Figural: the depiction of people doing activities or simply how they look.
3. Still Life: fruit, florals, or other objects. Today, as an artist you will concentrate on drawing the still life.

Materials:

Directions:
1. Take a few minutes to look at the still life that has been set up. Look at each object carefully. What shape is it? What colors are in it? What is the texture of each object? Are there objects that look very similar? Very different?

2. Pick one object you see and draw it's shape on your paper. Draw BIG and very lightly with a pencil. If you draw lightly, you can pick and choose the lines you like best to color and cover the line you don't like. You can draw a shape so that it tells where an object IS. This shape is called a positive shape/space. You can also outline the space between objects to show where objects ARE NOT. These spaces are called negative shapes/spaces. For now, concentrate on the positive shapes- the shapes of the objects themselves.

3. You can pick and choose WHERE you want to put an object on your paper; on a horizontal or vertical line, overlapping, in a pattern...or even if you don't want to include an object. That's part of composition and is up to you. But when you actually draw the details of the object, LOOK at the object first, then draw. And cover your whole paper!

4. When you have a sketch on your paper of a couple of objects, now is the time to add color. In traditional still life, everything is drawn exactly as it is seen (realism). But modern artist like Andy Warhol used bright, unexpected colors when they drew objects. We are going to use warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows) and cool colors (greens, blues, and purples). Where the object is in the light, use warm colors and where the object has shadows, use cool colors. Sometimes it helps to squint to see the lights and darks.

Art Terms:
Shape – organic vs. geometric shape, positive vs. negative shape/space
Texture – bumpy, soft, rough, hard, etc...
Warm and Cool Colors – more advanced students can be introduced to primary, secondary, tertiary, complimentary, and analogous colors.
Composition – all about where an artist puts something and why.

Resources:
Bordon, Dave. Warhol. Abradale Press: NY, 1989.

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