This unusual still life arrangement was actually quite fun demanding attention to detail and light in order to make the bags pop and stand out in contrast against the background. We stuck with a grayscale color theme using chalk as our medium. For the entirety of 3.5 hours we stood and drew the still life studying the light and shadows in order to replicate the arrangement in a realistic way on paper.
During these studies our instructor would set up the arrangements ahead of time, sometimes lasting for multiple days or an entire week as we stood behind our easels for over 3 hours each class setting. We would stand and observe the items in each arrangement carefully studying the light and shadows to highlight the light and dark aspects of each object in order to create depth and realistic drawings on paper. The curated items in the arrangement were always eclectic finds that added some mystery to each still life. We used artists paper and chalks to produce grayscale images of our final drawing replicating the still life before it was disassembled.
The final drawing was a realistic capture of the still life arrangement. With highlighted light accents and dark shadows to create a depth in the paper bags and make them pop off the paper. The contrasting items within the arrangement helped to create this illusion of depth and mystery surrounding the items and these strange paper bags.
Out of our early still life arrangements in this course I think this one might be my favorite. The strange mystery to these paper bags and the contrast that ended up contributing to their 3D nature adds a lot of value to the piece. Not all still life settings are the same or fun for that matter, but this one was an interesting project with otherwise uninteresting materials.
One foot deep in creative and one foot deep in the alpine. Designing solutions to solve big challenges & suffering in beautiful places.
