Painting Still Lifes

Following the great tradition of all artists, our class decided to do a still life after the great artist Cezanne.

Here’s a short slideshow to demonstrate our goal: Cezanne Slideshow

I brought the props and the kids did a fantastic collaborating and arranging it to their own liking. I think they exercised great balance and proportion for their still life.

Sketching It In

By taking a picture and pulling it up on the big screen, I was able to draw on the photo and help the students with their sketches.

First, I showed them how to divide the paper to help their elements get the correct placement.

Then I showed them how to break the still life into simple shapes. This builds on our previous Simple Shapes lesson. I made sure to remind everyone to keep their pencil lines soft and light.

With out the picture:

Here’s How They Did

After Painting

We didn’t have the option to break out the paints this time so I let the kids have a go with the hard pastels. It was a fun experiment, but I’d like to try repeating it with paint soon.