Learning Objectives:
- Master still life composition, lighting, and rendering techniques
- Understand landscape fundamentals including atmospheric perspective and natural elements
- Learn portrait basics including proportions, features, and character capture
- Apply technical skills to specific subject challenges and requirements
Key Topics:
- Still life setup, composition, and detailed rendering
- Landscape elements: skies, trees, water, and atmospheric effects
- Portrait proportions, feature rendering, and expression capture
- Subject-specific techniques and common challenges
Still life painting offers the perfect training ground for developing fundamental skills. Unlike landscapes or portraits, still life subjects remain constant, allowing you to focus on technique without worrying about changing light or moving subjects.
Setting Up Your Still Life
Object Selection - Choose objects with varying shapes, sizes, textures, and reflective qualities. Combine matte and shiny surfaces, geometric and organic forms, simple and complex shapes. Avoid too many objects initially - three to five pieces create sufficient complexity without overwhelming composition.
Lighting Design - Use a single, strong light source to create clear light and shadow patterns. Position the light at a 45-degree angle to create interesting shadows without losing form definition. Avoid flat, frontal lighting that eliminates shadows and flattens form.
Background Considerations - Simple backgrounds focus attention on your objects. Neutral colors (grays, browns, muted blues) work well and don't compete with your subject colors. Fabric drapes create soft, flowing lines that contrast with hard object edges.
Compositional Arrangement - Apply the rule of thirds to object placement. Create visual paths through overlapping and varying heights. Establish a clear focal point through contrast, isolation, or convergence of visual elements.
Still Life Painting Process
Initial Drawing - Sketch the basic shapes and proportions lightly. Focus on accurate relationships between objects rather than details. Check angles, proportions, and negative spaces carefully at this stage.
Value Structure - Establish your light and shadow patterns early. Squint to simplify value relationships and ignore color temporarily. A strong value structure is more important than accurate color for convincing form.
Color Temperature Strategy - Generally, illuminated areas tend toward warm colors while shadow areas lean cool. However, observe carefully - reflected light can warm shadow areas, and cool light sources reverse this relationship.
Surface Quality Rendering - Different materials require different approaches:
- Matte surfaces show clear light and shadow transitions
- Shiny surfaces reflect light sources and surrounding objects
- Transparent materials transmit and refract light
- Textured surfaces break up light and shadow patterns
Common Still Life Challenges
Ellipses and Circular Forms - Bowls, cups, and plates appear as ellipses when viewed at angles. The ellipse becomes wider as it moves farther from eye level. Practice drawing ellipses in perspective to master this fundamental skill.
Reflective Surfaces - Metal and glass objects reflect their surroundings. Observe carefully and paint what you see, not what you think should be there. Reflections follow perspective rules and can be complex.
Cast Shadows - Shadows follow the contours of the surfaces they fall on. A shadow cast on a curved surface will curve accordingly. Shadow edges vary from sharp (direct light) to soft (diffused light).
Landscape painting presents unique challenges including changing light, atmospheric effects, and the need to suggest vast spaces and natural textures convincingly.
Sky Fundamentals
The sky sets the mood and lighting for your entire landscape. Master sky painting and you're halfway to successful landscapes.
Cloud Formation and Structure - Clouds are three-dimensional forms with light and shadow sides. They follow the same lighting principles as solid objects. Observe cloud types: cumulus (puffy), stratus (layered), cirrus (wispy), and their combinations.
Sky Color and Gradation - Skies rarely show uniform color. Near the horizon, the sky appears lighter and warmer due to atmospheric filtering. Overhead, skies appear darker and cooler. Create smooth gradations to suggest infinite space.
Atmospheric Perspective in Skies - Distant clouds appear smaller, lighter, and less contrasted than nearby clouds. Use this principle to create depth even in sky areas.
Tree and Foliage Rendering
Tree Structure - Start with the basic trunk and major branch structure before adding foliage. Trees have characteristic growth patterns - learn to recognize and simplify these patterns rather than painting every leaf.
Foliage Masses - Think of foliage as sculptural masses with light and shadow sides. Use varied greens and avoid uniform color throughout. Suggest individual leaves only in foreground areas where detail is appropriate.
Seasonal Considerations - Different seasons require different approaches. Spring foliage is lighter and more yellow-green, summer foliage is darker and more varied, autumn brings warm colors, and winter reveals tree structure.
Water Representation
Calm Water - Acts like a horizontal mirror, reflecting objects with slight color and value modifications. Reflections appear directly below their sources and follow perspective rules.
Moving Water - Breaks up reflections into horizontal streaks. The faster the movement, the more broken the reflections become. Use horizontal brushstrokes to suggest water movement.
Water Color - Water has no inherent color but reflects sky and surrounding objects. In shallow areas, bottom colors show through. Deep water appears darker and more saturated.
Atmospheric Perspective Application
Distance Relationships - Foreground elements show strong contrast, saturated colors, and sharp details. Middle ground elements have moderate contrast and detail. Background elements appear light, cool, and soft with minimal detail.
Color Temperature Progression - Generally, warm colors advance and cool colors recede. Use warmer, more saturated colors in foregrounds and cooler, grayer colors in backgrounds.
Edge Quality Variation - Sharp edges advance, soft edges recede. Use this principle to create spatial depth throughout your landscape.
Portrait painting combines technical skill with psychological insight, requiring accurate observation and sensitive interpretation of human features and character.
Facial Proportions and Structure
Basic Proportional Guidelines - The head is approximately five eye-widths wide. Eyes are positioned halfway down the head. The nose bottom falls halfway between eyes and chin. The mouth sits one-third of the way from nose to chin. These are guidelines, not rules - individual faces vary significantly.
Skull Structure Understanding - The skull provides the underlying structure that determines surface form. Understanding basic skull anatomy helps you paint convincing head forms and lighting effects.
Feature Relationships - Features don't exist in isolation. The relationship between features creates likeness and character. Observe carefully how features relate to each other in size, position, and angle.
Eye Rendering Techniques
Eye Structure - Eyes are spherical forms sitting in skull sockets. The upper eyelid typically casts a shadow on the eyeball. The lower lid often catches light, appearing lighter than the upper lid.
Iris and Pupil - The iris is a colored disk with radial patterns. The pupil is a perfect circle that appears elliptical when viewed at angles. Catchlights (light reflections) bring eyes to life but should be used sparingly.
Expression Through Eyes - Eye shape, lid position, and surrounding muscle tension convey emotion. Observe how happiness, sadness, concentration, and other emotions affect eye appearance.
Nose and Mouth Rendering
Nose Structure - The nose has five basic planes: top, two sides, and two nostril areas. Understanding these planes helps you model nose form convincingly under various lighting conditions.
Mouth Complexity - Lips follow the curve of the underlying teeth and jaw. The upper lip typically appears darker than the lower lip due to its angle relative to the light source. Avoid outlining lips - model them through value and color relationships.
Individual Characteristics - Every person's features are unique. Observe carefully and avoid generic approaches. What makes this person's nose or mouth distinctive?
Skin Tone and Color
Skin Color Complexity - Skin contains multiple color influences: underlying blood circulation, surface texture, reflected light, and local pigmentation. Avoid single-color approaches to skin rendering.
Color Temperature in Skin - Generally, areas receiving direct light appear warmer while shadow areas appear cooler. However, reflected light can warm shadow areas significantly.
Ethnic Considerations - Different ethnic backgrounds show different color relationships and characteristics. Observe carefully and avoid stereotypical color formulas.
Still Life Series: Set up three different still life arrangements focusing on different challenges: reflective objects, transparent materials, and varied textures. Complete one painting from each setup.
Landscape Elements Study: Create separate studies of sky, trees, and water. Focus on one element at a time to master specific techniques before combining them in complete landscapes.
Portrait Feature Studies: Practice painting individual facial features (eyes, nose, mouth) from different angles and under different lighting conditions before attempting complete portraits.
Subject Comparison: Paint the same simple subject (like an apple) as a still life, in a landscape setting, and held by a figure. Observe how context affects your approach and technique.
Subject matter mastery requires understanding the unique challenges and opportunities each genre presents. Still life offers controlled conditions perfect for developing technical skills. Landscapes demand understanding of atmospheric effects and natural forms. Portraits require both technical accuracy and psychological sensitivity.
Each subject type has developed specific conventions and techniques over centuries of artistic practice. Study master paintings in each genre to understand how great artists solved common problems. However, don't be limited by conventions - use your technical foundation to develop personal approaches to traditional subjects.
In Module 8, we'll explore advanced techniques that can elevate your work from competent to sophisticated, including glazing, scumbling, and alla prima methods that professional artists use to create compelling, masterful paintings.