Still Life Thread

[Anonymous No.2723254]

1. Get an object or objects
2. Place them somewhere you can see them
3. Draw/paint/sketch them for a while
4. Post in this thread
5. ????
6. PROFIT!

[Anonymous No.2723314]

>>2723254
Nice idea for a thread, I might contribute a bit later.

Crits for your pic: Nice colours and I like that you are painting so opaquely. The ellipses need a lot of work though, they are wonky and the ones near the bottom of the bottle are thinner when they should be getting taller since they are farther from the horizon line. Maybe do some light construction lines before painting next time.

[Anonymous No.2723465]

bump

[Anonymous No.2723471]

[Anonymous No.2723499]

>>2723465
I saw your pic then looked down and saw my mug, so did it too. I kinda rushed and fucked it up really bad and was very indecisive about things, but I thought I'd post it anyways to get the thread going. And yes I see the irony in earlier critiquing your ellipses then doing horrible on my own ones and getting the perspective wrong on the sticky pads and stuff.

[Anonymous No.2723532]

>>2723471
Hey man not a bad start but I find the colours really odd. I think it's that intense green you have which is affecting all the other colours' appearances. I would try to shift that green a little more towards the yellow spectrum and try to get a temperature shift from light to shadow. When painting the actual vegetables, try to get the light planes and shadow planes clearly defined and make sure there is a value separation. Get the main forms right like this and the value relationships correct before worrying about detail like texture.

[Anonymous No.2723546]

>>2723499

the ellipse is a little bit off I think, but the rendering looks very pleasant. Comfy lighting

[Anonymous No.2723603]

>>2723532
I had a warm desk lamp lighting them from the top left and cooler light coming from a window behind me (note the blueish highlight on the onion and the fill light in the cast shadows). I think the dual light source was messing with me though, and that I was trying too hard to copy the colours I saw and not make an educated decision to separate values better. I definitely wasn't thinking about planes well enough either. Thanks for the suggestions anon, I will keep them in mind.

[Anonymous No.2723699]

Good that for moments like these I always have a banana handy.

>>2723499
Those are some nice values.

[Anonymous No.2723733]

>>2723699
>filename
hah
Really nice man

[Anonymous No.2723826]

>>2723733
thank you

[Anonymous No.2723835]

>>2723826

do a high speed low drag tactical grapefruit.

[Anonymous No.2723861]

>>2723835
I'm sorry but I don't know what that is.
Have these nuts instead.

[Anonymous No.2723862]

What is the best way to illuminate a still life?
I'd like to purchase a suitable lamp for the job because the lighting in my room is dull.

[Anonymous No.2723870]

>>2723862
Try to get one with a bulb that produces light in the spectrum of daylight. Painting under strong incandescent or fluorescent bulbs might mess up your color sense.

[Anonymous No.2724084]

[Anonymous No.2724086]

>>2723826
>>2723699
>>2723861
Something on your mind, anon?

[Anonymous No.2724087]

>>2724086
kek, glad I wasn't the only one that noticed

[Anonymous No.2724101]

>>2723861
You are a cool person, I like you.

[balamory No.2724119]

>>2723254

[Anonymous No.2724135]

>>2724119
Values look too light.

[Anonymous No.2724142]

Where's a good site to look at various still lives?

[Anonymous No.2724144]

>>2724142
It's not a still life if it's a photo you are copying. Just put an object on your desk.

[Anonymous No.2724152]

>>2724142
Don't you have things in your home?

[Anonymous No.2724293]

>>2724086
Would it make it better or worse if I said those were chosen at random?
Well, yes, smuggling a cucumber into my room in the depths of night was definitely a covert operation, but I didn't mean to make a... theme or anything.

>>2724101
You seem to need little to judge a person for that but ok.

>>2724084
I like the black&white with small color accents, nice setup.


Now here's something more classy.

[Anonymous No.2724341]

Some nice stuff being posted here guys.

I wanted to do one with the colourful leaves that are outside, so last night I picked some up off the ground for today, but overnight they shriveled and lost their colour. Also as I was painting this the lighting was changing back and forth from super sunny and going through this yellow tree by my window so filling my room with ambient warm yellow light, to overcast but bright and filling the room with ambient cool light, to dark overcast and having very little light coming in (and I even saw a few snowflakes) so it was frustrating to say the least. Anyways, I'm not overly happy with this one and stopped around an hour.

>>2724293
Are you the anon that once talked about still lives of toilet paper rolls being key to a master? They talked how they collected images from people like Mullins and Linran who had done really nice studies of toilet paper.

[Anonymous No.2724344]

>>2724293

You need now to paint starfish or rosebud.

[Anonymous No.2724345]

FUCKING GREAT TIMING!

i painted this yesterday and i liked it.

[Anonymous No.2724356]

>>2724345
good job!

[Anonymous No.2724368]

>>2724356
thanks, dad.

[Anonymous No.2724414]

[Anonymous No.2724422]

>>2724414
Nice, but lay off the grain filter, or make it more subtle

[Anonymous No.2724492]

>>2724341
I'm not but I am now interested in seeing those.
And I want your asaro head, I think you should give it to me.

>>2724345
Props for using analogous paint, bud.

[Anonymous No.2724523]

[Anonymous No.2724543]

>>2723471
Alright, started another one today, keeping in mind some of the feedback I got on the last one, especially the thing about planes. I think it worked out better this time. Gonna clean it up & finish tomorrow.

[Anonymous No.2724546]

>>2724543
Tiny sculpture or giant beer bottle?

[Anonymous No.2724548]

>>2724546
11-inch tall Venus.

[Anonymous No.2724553]

>>2724543
Looking a lot better than the previous one! The beer bottle is sort of strange though because the mouth of it looks very close to us, then as you go down you realize that the venus knee is in front of it. So it's creating almost this optical illusion where it's sitting in space in two different depths at once.

I may be wrong about this but maybe double check the values on the apply/tomato thing. It seems a little bit bright maybe?

[Anonymous No.2724564]

>>2724553
>The beer bottle is sort of strange though because the mouth of it looks very close to us, then as you go down you realize that the venus knee is in front of it.
Yeah, I think that's because it has the darkest values in the image, so it's reading as being closer... That's how it appears IRL but I'll try lightening it up a little bit and darkening the shadows of the statue. I just realized the statue shadow is about the same value as the background, which maybe shouldn't be.

>double check the values on the apply/tomato thing. It seems a little bit bright
Yeah it does seem to be. I'll drop that shit.

Thanks m8

[Anonymous No.2724569]

>>2724492
Hey thanks. Yours is so good I'd wipe my ass with it.

[Anonymous No.2724644]

>>2724569
Thanks

[Anonymous No.2725239]

[Anonymous No.2725241]

[Anonymous No.2725242]

>>2724523
nice colors

[Anonymous No.2726252]

[Anonymous No.2726263]

>>2726252
Wich tecnique do you use to paint that. Sorry if its a stupid question or something, first time in /ic

[Anonymous No.2726265]

>>2724644
Dat filename

[Anonymous No.2726302]

>>2726263
Hard round with flow-setting around 30-50% somewhere. Opacity jitter on, have the driver and brush settings set up so I can get 100% opacity without pressing too hard while still being able to vary the pressure.

[Anonymous No.2726319]

>>2724344
I have a starfish lying around, so I might as well.
Racing the fucking sun here.

[Anonymous No.2726347]

>>2723499
Do you drink black coffee, no sugar?
Is it the secret to painting better?

[Anonymous No.2726376]

>>2723254
>Mfw nothing interesting to paint

[Anonymous No.2726383]

>>2726347
Yeah, I drink it straight, but I have done that since before I did art so I can't say the effect on painting :P

[Anonymous No.2726385]

>>2726347
>>2726383
You nigs better shut up and stop giving away trade secrets right fucking now

[Anonymous No.2726430]

Did a little Spartan on my desk.

[Anonymous No.2726439]

>>2726430
You have a spartan on your desk? Can you post a photo of it? I'm curious to see what it is like.

Anyways, the painting is not a bad start but I think maybe you can take a slightly different approach. Working on just the figure without the background means all of your colours and values will be thrown off. Colour and value are relative, so you need to include the background tones in order to judge things accurately. You should try to cover up that pure white of the canvas and get the main colour relationships of the masses in before even thinking about detailing the helmet.

[Anonymous No.2726472]

>>2726385
People have the right to know!

[Anonymous No.2726827]

>>2726472
I'm trying to learn how to life draw and I have zero idea where to start. I was looking for shit online but can't really find much beyond vague tips. Even when I want to just draw a single object to start off I never really know where to begin. Any advice on this issue?

[Anonymous No.2726829]

>>2726827
Some people choose to skip the linework stage and get straight into blocks of colour, but if you are a beginner this might be too much for you, so stick to what's in this image. Also worth noting that he probably put a white piece of paper underneath these hence the white background, but if you have it on your desk or some other coloured object it might be better since then you have background tones to work with and you are not fighting pure white.

[Anonymous No.2726878]

>>2726252
are you swedish anon?
filename
>stilleben
just curious

[Anonymous No.2726900]

>>2726829
Actually I meant still lifes in general. I can't even make decent sketches. I don't knoww where to begin. Everything just ends up skewed and wrong.

[Anonymous No.2726912]

>>2726900
Get a book like Keys to Drawing then. You need to learn how to observe basic 2d shapes and relationships before you can worry about painting.

[Anonymous No.2726916]

>>2726912
Alright thanks.

[Anonymous No.2726940]

>>2726829
>tfw every further step looks worse

[Anonymous No.2726949]

>>2726878
My bet is OP is german.

[Anonymous No.2726952]

>>2726940
I usually prefer his initial sketches to the finals in general. That tutorial was done like a decade ago, and it's still a weakness of his. He's still a beast of an artist though, I definitely consider him one of the top around.

[Anonymous No.2727001]

[Anonymous No.2727008]

>>2727001
Nice anon, very clean. Might need some very subtle gradations within the reflections on the mug? I'm just guessing based on how I would paint that out of my head though.

Also why is the surface the mug is on look distorted like that? It would sort of make sense if it was the mug blocking the reflection of light from the window, but it extends wider than the mug, and the way the edge of the windowsill is painted it looks like it dips down.

[Anonymous No.2727016]

>>2727008

thank you.

I'm not sure. there is probably no real reason except that i rushed and didn't pay enough attention to that area when i painted it.

[Anonymous No.2727054]

>>2723826
>not even country grown

[Anonymous No.2727145]

>>2726827
For still lifes, I find it's useful to measure the subject with your thumb in front of you to get the general proportions right, making marks on your paper or canvas or whatever at important points.

Like, if I were drawing my dresser right now I'd go "okay, the dresser is 10.25 thumbs tall and 4.5 thumbs wide from where I'm sitting", and mark off an area on my canvas that's 10.25 by 4.5.
Then I'd use my thumb to find the major landmarks, like the near corner, (.66 thumbs in from the right) the place where the doors meet (2 thumbs in from the near corner) etc.
Once you've got these basic landmarks in place, you're in a much better position to draw the rest by eye.

[Anonymous No.2727194]

[Anonymous No.2727232]

>>2727054
It actually is though.

[Anonymous No.2727748]

dekstop

[Anonymous No.2727757]

>>2727748
Wow very nice! How long did it take you roughly?

I think that the values are reading very nicely and the shapes are very clean and nice...but i think you can vary the way you paint a bit more on different materials. Everything is done with the same grungy brush and painted the same way. It would be nice if you could change your brush up, maybe change the transparency of your strokes, change the size of your brush, the edges etc. a bit more, especialyl when trying to describe specific materials. When I look at the glass there I know it is glass from context, but not from the way it is painted. Glass is very smooth and has a specific look to how it reflects things or shows things behind it. It's got a clean crispness merged with subtle reflections overtop it, and I'm not getting that feeling at all from how you painted it. The upper lip on the milk jug looks pretty lazily painted to me, I don't think you are getting the clarity of shape there or the subtle compressed reflections on the bevelled edge. Same with the plastic handles on them, like I can tell that those are highlights from context, but they don't FEEL like they are highlights on plastic. The smoke too is painted in that same grungy opaque manner, when I would imagine it was a much softer, wispier translucent thing in real life, slowly moving and billowing up.

Anyways, that's a long way of saying to work on capturing the feeling of each material more so that it's fully believable. Play up the differences between things.

[Anonymous No.2727987]

A lot of great work here!

I've just started doing digital and this took way too long time, but I had fun doing it.

[Anonymous No.2728056]

shit's hard

>>2727987
>but I had fun doing it
That's what's most important, speed comes with time.

[Anonymous No.2728057]

I see your toilet paper rolls and raise you one paper towel roll.

[Anonymous No.2728063]

>>2728057
The ellipse is a little off (and a lil' off center) but I like the simplicity of your brush strokes.

[Anonymous No.2728072]

>>2727748
post battlestation
looks really comfy

[Anonymous No.2728083]

>>2728057
Nice brushwork mate

[Anonymous No.2728087]

>>2728057
I call.

[Anonymous No.2728106]

one of my first gouache studies i need really got a critique on

[Anonymous No.2728898]

[Anonymous No.2728955]

>>2728898
The perspective on the bottle is severely messed up...

[Anonymous No.2730264]

[Anonymous No.2730545]

[Anonymous No.2730546]

>>2730264
Nice

[Anonymous No.2730590]

[Anonymous No.2730601]

>>2730590
I choose to believe you actually wore a skull mask while painting that.

[Anonymous No.2730602]

[Anonymous No.2730618]

>>2730545
Lovely colors but the value range is quite narrow.

[Anonymous No.2730646]

>>2730590
don't be lazy and actually paint your face
push your boundaries

[Anonymous No.2730648]

>>2726829

>blending

Pig disgusting.

[Anonymous No.2730651]

>>2730646

>that's a painting

Oh doge. Noice.

[Anonymous No.2730654]

>>2730646
But it's halloween-themed.

[Anonymous No.2730660]

>>2730651
It's by Jana Schirmer and is years old. It's not like that anon painted it just now.

[Anonymous No.2730731]

>>2730618

Thank you, I'll keep the value structure more in mind next time.

>>2730602
Nice textures, what sort of lighting setup is that under? Looks like its near a window or outdoors.

[Anonymous No.2730880]

[Anonymous No.2731183]

This thread seems to be digital for the most part, I guess I'll post some still life drawings I've been doing lately

[Anonymous No.2731184]

>>2731183

[Anonymous No.2731186]

>>2731184
A plaster baby with a bit of a club foot

[Anonymous No.2731187]

>>2731186
A work in progress plaster cast

[Anonymous No.2731189]

>>2731183
>>2731184
>>2731186
>>2731187
Neat. Try to take better photos though as they're blurry, and next time resize them to be smaller before posting.

[Anonymous No.2731192]

>>2731189
Yea sorry, on mobile, and too lazy to get on my computer to format

[Anonymous No.2731217]

>>2730731
It's my shitty desklamp + some cool light from the window

[Anonymous No.2732732]

[Anonymous No.2732859]

>>2732732
Made me want to paint some milky glass as well.

[Anonymous No.2733431]

Week old apple.

[Anonymous No.2733643]

[Anonymous No.2734167]

Acrylic trompe l'oeil on panel

[Anonymous No.2734539]

>>2731187

[Anonymous No.2734578]

>>2732732
love this

[Anonymous No.2735137]

>>2731192
Browse around your camera app. There may be a resize function.

[Anonymous No.2735246]

[Anonymous No.2735939]

[Anonymous No.2736061]

[Anonymous No.2736085]

>>2723465
What brush is that? Looks super nice

[Anonymous No.2736144]

>>2736085
It's a brush shape I either got from the Algenpfleger or Craig Mullins brush set and modified a bit. For that particular still life I turned off opacity jitter.

[Anonymous No.2736188]

[Anonymous No.2736268]

>>2736188

Snyggt

[Anonymous No.2737107]

[Anonymous No.2737474]

>>2723861
this is so tender

[OP No.2737753]

>>2734539
Is this graphite? Why are you using graphite?
I'm not rippin on ya, I'm just wondering what kind of deliberation was behind the choice

[Anonymous No.2737754]

[Anonymous No.2738739]

[Anonymous No.2740275]

[Anonymous No.2740804]

>>2723499
is your desk made of Europa?

[Anonymous No.2740928]

>>2735939
that's not a pipe

[Anonymous No.2742455]

spent too long on this one but learned one or two things

[Anonymous No.2742503]

>>2723465
very nice, painterly. it feels like canvas in some areas im getting a boner

[Anonymous No.2742506]

>>2723546
>>2723499
sometimes having something off a bit is okay, i think the cup is charming the way it is

[Anonymous No.2742508]

>>2724293
try and reform your application.
it has that hazey look
the hole on the top is timid and shaky
the piece of toilet paper at the beginning of the roll is too thick

if this is in progress i would say that its going quite well. nail it down youre almost there

[Anonymous No.2742510]

>>2724414
very nice

[Anonymous No.2742511]

>>2725241
whats going on with those highlights on the cup?
the orange background is refreshing - finish the shadows....every inch of a painting is important

[Anonymous No.2742515]

>>2730545
very nice colors, make them more pure and they will sing !

[Anonymous No.2742518]

>>2730646
so did you use a program to warp a photograph of you and then paint it?

thats cute

[Anonymous No.2742521]

>>2735939
fucking 10/10 love it

[Anonymous No.2742525]

>>2742518
Uh, that anon didn't paint it. Look up Jana Schirmer, she did that painting years ago and she didn't use a photo, it was just painted with a round brush.

[Anonymous No.2742542]

>>2724523
I know its just a hourglass but to me it looks so cute. I think its the pastel colors. nice work anon

[Anonymous No.2742545]

>>2731183
>>2731184
>>2731186
>>2731187
Got any advice on rendering like that? I can never get smooth gradients like that

[Anonymous No.2742577]

>>2742542
>Jana Schirme
incredible

[Anonymous No.2742581]

>>2742525
but do you really think she did that from life, look at this painting for example, does she have panoramic vision

[Anonymous No.2742586]

>>2742581
It's a shiny metal sphere of some sort that she had on her desk, look like maybe it is a container. Yes it was done from life. Google "chrome sphere" if you've never see how they reflect their surroundings before.

[Anonymous No.2742587]

>>2742581

[Anonymous No.2742591]

>>2742587
>>2742581
This one was also painted from life. I remember when she did it and posted it online and she mentioned how she did it. It just looks like a panorama photo because she is moving her eyes while she paints. You can try it out yourself in your room. Stare at one corner of the room where the ceiling and wall meet. Take note of the angle of the ceiling. Then stare at the opposite corner of the room, and you will see the ceiling is going to a different vanishing point and is tilting the other way.

[Anonymous No.2742594]

>>2742591
you are wrong

[Anonymous No.2742600]

>>2742594
you are a faggot

[Anonymous No.2742601]

>>2742594
No I'm not. There's plenty of things in that painting that are obviously only possible to do from life and are not how a camera would show it. She also has no reason to lie over something like this and her explanation makes perfect sense and she has a history of painting from life a lot. I've also done similar "panorama" paintings from life myself and it's exactly as described.

[Anonymous No.2742624]

>>2742601
let me see one of your panorama paintings

[Anonymous No.2742640]

>>2742624
Here's one from last winter. Obviously it's not as rendered or as skillful as Jana's but it shows that you can get a panorama look by painting from life and turning your head.

[Anonymous No.2742660]

/beg/ here. I feel very lost when doing still-lifes. I don't know anything about utilizing layers (I do everything on one layer) or how to use the multiply blending mode, yet these are what I came up with. Any advice?

[Anonymous No.2742665]

>>2742660
>I don't know anything about utilizing layers (I do everything on one layer)
That's fine. Some people will gave each object on its own layer and paint with clipping masks to keep the shapes clean, but lots of people just do it one layer too and get good results.

>how to use the multiply blending mode
Don't. Just focus on manually picking the correct values.

>Any advice?
Keep doing more, and maybe try some in colour. You can try either blending more or painting more opaquely since you are getting lots of small overlaps of the transparent brushstrokes that create these ugly smaller shapes and textures.