Still life art has its own charm

Still life is an art form in its own right. It is very traditional to churn out the odd picture of bowls of fruit, bottle with glass, tea cups, vases of flowers and so on.

Old wood

Old wooden gates are favourite items to draw. 'The ancient bars and pieces show wonderful grain lines with lots of different tones. Today, many gates are made of steel, which isn't so nice to look at, but it's cheaper and lasts longer than wood. With old gates there are equally old posts which are lovely to sketch. Observe Figure 1. Try drawing it or better still, go out and find one to draw. Dead tree stumps, fence, posts, roots and branches are subjects which are easy to draw. Driftwood that has been cleaned by river or sea then bleached by the sun is attractive to sketch. Observe the sketch done by pen and ink in Figure 2 (driftwood).

Trees - Most of the faults that so often occur when drawing trees are not basically because of lack of skill, but lack of observation. In so many cases it's a quick glance at the actual tree, and then it's eyes down, to get on with the drawing, with scarcely a second look at it. The result is often a stereotyped card board cut out of a tree with a little thought of light and shade.

The structure of the tree tapers gradually upwards from its trunk and branches are spread, with shaded leaves. Notice the tree in Figure 3. A tree is always a good still life subject.

I use a fine pointed pen for this work and have found that by decreasing finger pressure on the pen, very thin delicate lines can be produced.

This is a help in recording, for example, the fine lines of wood grain or those seen in leaves or flowers. In Figure 3, the leaves were shaded in, to try something different - which is recommended in most art forms.

Try your hand at this by observing the drawings. Then look around for some new still life objects to draw.