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INTRODUCTION TO STILL LIFE –
Clare Lord
Clare Lord sees beauty in the everyday and her expertise and passion for still life painting will help you see it too.
Reference Image
Materials
Pencil & Paper (For preliminary sketching)
Canvas
Oil Paints – Three of each primary colour, plus Veridian
Selection of brushes
Palette
Solvent
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Composition
You can work from the reference image provided or choose a selection of objects from around the house. Try and select objects of different colours and sizes. Take time to decide how to arrange them, what you like and why.
Try different ways to light your objects. Choose the one you like the best – shadows are often as interesting as the objects themselves.
The importance of a viewfinder and compositional sketches
Using a viewfinder when painting still life can help you frame your composition, focus on key elements, and better understand proportions and perspective.
A viewfinder does not need to be the same size as your canvas, but it should have the same aspect ratio to ensure that what you compose in the viewfinder translates proportionally to your canvas.
DIY Viewfinder: Cut a rectangular or square hole in a piece of sturdy cardboard, or use two L-shaped pieces of card to adjust the frame size.
Store-Bought Viewfinder: Purchase a pre-made one, often adjustable to different aspect ratios.
Take your viewfinder and place it onto your sketching paper. Draw around the inside of the viewfinder and you will now have a frame in which you can complete a compositional sketch. To aid further, draw on your viewfinder and add ½ & ¼ markings to enable you to see where things are.
When making your compositional sketch, hold up the viewfinder and look through it at the still life. Ask yourself ‘portrait or landscape?’. Zoom in and out to decide where you want things to be within the composition. Consider the spaces around the edge of the objects. Once you’re happy, you can replicate this view onto your paper.
This does not need to be a detailed drawing. Consider this sketch a map for the painting.
Prepare your palette
Squeeze three shades of yellow, red and blue oil paint onto your palette.
Top Tip – To make a dark hue, mix Viridian, French Ultramarine and Alizarin Crimson. Use different amounts of each to make warmer or cooler dark tones.
Sketch onto your canvas in paint
To transfer your initial sketch onto your canvas, make a very wet mix of a tertiary colour, and use this to sketch your composition directly onto your canvas.
A tertiary colour is made by mixing three primary colours together. Different types of blue, yellow and red combined will give you a different hue. Experiment until you find what you are looking for.
You can ensure the mix is thin by adding some solvent.
The painting sketch does not need to be detailed. You are simply blocking in at this point.
If you make mistakes, that is ok. Mix up a slightly different colour and correct your line. The different colour will let you know which line is correct and should be developed at a later stage in the painting process.
Remember to look at the spaces between the still-life objects as well as the objects themselves. This will force you to properly position your sketch on your canvas.
Keep stepping back from your work. If you notice mistakes, take a rag and wipe the oil away and correct your painting.
Top tip- Stand up when painting. This means your hand does not smudge the canvas and you can rely on gravity to pull your brush down in a straight line.
Painting the background
When working in oil it’s best to paint from dark to light but there is no rule as to whether you should paint the background or objects first.
If you are using the reference image, start by painting the purple and red colours in the background. This will help you understand the colours of the bottles when you come to paint them.
Remember shadows when painting. They will add a 3D element to your work.
Try and paint with as few brushstrokes as possible. Have a range of brushes available to you and select a brush that fits the area you are trying to paint. This will help limit the amount of brushstrokes you use.
Use one brush per colour.
Painting the objects
If painting from the reference photo, start by painting the dark green tones in the bottle. Really assess the colour of the bottle in the reference image. Make a thick mix of the darkest tone you can see.
Apply this to the relevant areas of the green bottle on your canvas.
The principals here apply equally if working from your chosen objects. The key is finding the colour and tone and working dark to light.
Look again at the green bottle in your reference image. Add some yellow to the dark green mix you have. Apply this to the areas of the green bottle on your canvas that are lighter. Your instinct may be to add white to your mix to lighten it. Try to avoid this and add yellow instead, as it is more fitting for an object that is made of glass.
Keep referring from the green bottle in your reference image to the green bottle you are painting. Make various tonal mixes until you have painted the entire green bottle on your canvas. Remember to work from the darkest tones to the lighter tones.
Take a rag and wrap it around your finger. Dip the rag in a solvent (We recommend wearing a glove underneath as well as using Sansodor as it is a less hazardous solvent to Turpentine). Look where the lightest parts are on your painted bottle and drag the rag over this section. This will thin the existing paint and make the area lighter. Try to do this with one movement.
You can now go back in with the paint. Repeat the same actions for the blue bottle, lemon, apples and surrounding textiles. Remember, work from dark to light.
You will have a lot of contrasting colours at this stage, keep standing back to make sure the colours work together and you are happy with your mixes.
Top tip – a colour chart of your paints will help you identify the colours you need to mix.
