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Visual LiteracyStill Lives

Grade 7

compiled by Cecilia Ferreira 

Still Lives To write in your NOTEBOOKS:

Visual LiteracyStill Lives

• A still life is a painting featuring an arrangement of everyday objects. It can be an arrangement of • a) natural objects• (flowers, food, wine, etc.) or • b) manufactured items • (books, bottles, crockery, etc.)

• A still life is a painting or a drawing of "anything that does not move or is dead".

 

Symbolism

• Symbolism is when an object or objects in a still life can represent something else or stand in the place of something else. For instance, cut flowers or a piece of decaying fruit, for instance, can be a symbol for mortality, or a symbol for death, or sadness.

Vincent van Gogh

• “Vincent van Gogh painted many still lives of sunflowers. His paintings sell today for hundreds of thousands of British pounds each. He was a Dutch Artist who only sold one painting during his whole life. He used a lot of paint when he painted, applying the paint thick, using an expressive style. An expressive style is when there is a lot of freedom in the way paint is applied, emotion is shown using rough brush strokes. Vincent van Gogh was an EXPRESSIONIST. He was part of EXPRESSIONISM.”

Vincent van Gogh

 

 

Vincent van Gogh

Pablo Picasso

• “Picasso painted some of his still lives in a bound breaking manner. Picasso was the father of Cubism. Cubism is when an object is being broken down into geometrical shapes, like sharp edged triangles, cubes etc. Picasso was famous in his life-time and sold many works. He was Spanish. He was a CUBIST. He was part of CUBISM.”

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Henry Matisse

  • “Matisse was a painter who loved flat colour (colour

with no light or dark). He was a master at pattern making and his paintings are really pretty and nice to look at. He used simple shapes to decorate his surfaces. He was French and he was a DECORATIVE artist.”

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse

Composition

• Just like a composer in music composes musical pieces, an artist composes a picture to create a symphony of colour, lines and shapes.

• A composition is the way the artist creates a beautiful picture by placing certain objects in certain places, using the correct colours and putting it all together in a harmonious manner.

Balance

• Balance is the way how we place things in pictures so that it doesn’t appear heavy on one side.• One cannot draw the objects really small in the corner

and leave the rest of the page empty. • One cannot draw all the objects on the left side of the

page and leave the right side empty. This would be an unbalanced work of art. • A balanced work of art will have the objects spread out

on the page, or more towards the centre, so that when we look at the art work, it doesn’t seem like it’s tilting to the one side.

Focal Point • A focal point in an art work is where you focus goes to when you first see the

work of art. Our eyes can only focus on one part of a picture first. Usually our eyes will first focus on the brightest colour, or the largest object, or if the work is very light and one part is very dark, our eyes will first fall on the part which is the darkest. All works of art must have a clear focal point. If all the objects on the page is the same colour, the same tone, or the same size, the viewer’s eyes won’t know where to fall first and in general the work of art will be confusing and slightly boring. Techniques in creating a good focal point:

 • Make the focal point in the brightest colour • Make the focal point darker than the rest

• Make the focal point in more detail than the rest• Make the focal point in a cold colour when the rest of the art work is in

warm colours

• Make the focal point larger than the rest of the art work

• A focal point has to stand out from the rest.

Contrast

• Contrast occurs between two opposites. It can be the difference between light and dark, or big and small. An image without contrast is bland and boring. A good way of bringing objects out and making them stand out is by the relationship between light and dark and between big and small. There is always light coming from somewhere, from some angle, no matter at what time of the day it is. This contrast between light and dark makes an object appear three dimensional. Sometimes we have an object that is not very visible, but as soon as we put a really dark border around it, or when we make the background really dark, the object stands out immediately. This is due to contrast.

Is this still life made out of organic objects or man made objects? Identify the rough and smooth textures.

Is this still life made out of organic objects or man made objects? Identify the rough and smooth textures.

Identify the focal points in this image

Mark Making

• Different types of marks

SHADING: Going from dark to light

Examples of Still life drawings by children