Drawing Projects > Charcoal Still Life Drawings

The magic of a still life is that it can show us a new way of looking at the ordinary objects around us. Once objects are placed into a specific arrangement and then captured in paint, ink, pastel, or any other medium - the objects take on a whole new meaning. They are imbued with a life beyond the ordinary. Their existence becomes recorded in time. A still life is an artistic representation of inanimate objects, usually everyday things such as chachkies, fruit, flowers.

Drawing from life allows artists to slow down and carefully observe the world around them. As a beginning art course, this project begins by emphasizing realism to build and reinforce both observational and technical skills. As students become more proficient in translating objects from the real world onto paper, they are encouraged to breakdown representation and dive deeper into conceptualization by using abstraction as a tool. Ask yourself-- can an object represent a deeper meaning, a memory, a feeling? What types of marks and expressive lines can an artist use to evoke these deeper concepts?