How to make a still life drawing in 5 easy steps

Want to find out how lead designer and artist, Natasha Lewis Honeyman, finds inspiration for floral prints?

We are all about empowering women to express themselves creatively by using artistically driven surface design on our fashion swimsuits and accessories.

We are going to take you deep ‘behind the scenes’ of how we make the source illustrations for designing prints. Here is a step by step guide to inspire you try your own drawings.

Step one: develop your concept

An artist, designer or illustrator needs to first develop a concept.

Sketch out your ideas on paper or in your art diary. Whether digital or hard copy - every artist, designer or illustrator must absolutely own an artist diary to test ideas in and refer back to.

Diary development will help you develop, refine and communicate your ideas over time.

Step two: select your materials

Once you have a clear vision of the concept, you now need to collect the resources to create for your drawing.

‘Shopping list’:

1. fresh or dried flowers, with leaves

2. a vase, cup or empty bottle to hold your floral display (does not need to be fancy)

3. drawing paper or art diary

4. soft pencils, such as a 6B Staedtler graphite pencil (will give you control and range in mark making from light to dark)

5. a soft art eraser for gentle effective erasing, causing less damage to the paper (example to Derwent art eraser here)

6. a pencil sharpener

7. Art Fineliner 200 in Black (to go over your light pencil work and define the lines)

8. OR your tablet with design apps such as Procreate or Adobe Fresco and use a mouse or drawing ‘pencil’ of your choice (shown is Natasha’s iPad Pro, Procreate app and Apple Pencil)

9. a flat, stable and uncluttered space to work in with good consistent lighting

10. time (you want to enjoy the process and allow yourself time to practice)

Your local art store will be able to help you select the right tools and materials, as long as you are able to articulate your concept.

Step three: set up your props

Once you have your materials organised, you can begin setting up your ‘still life’ arrangement and drawing space.

Set up your drawing position somewhere comfortable. And set up your subject - the vase of flora in an arrangement you are happy with.

Consider your lighting. You may use indoor lights, cascading light through windows or a spotlight. Will it be consistent for the time you will be working?

The ‘still life’ is called this for a reason. Your subject, i.e. flora display is static… and once you will begin, you won’t be moving either.

Step four: draw

The key to still life is observation and practice.

Warm up with sketches in your diary, or on cheap paper or on your tablet.

As this is a warm up exercise, you can even work over the same artwork multiple times to save paper until you feel that you are ready for your final artwork.

Maintaining the same observation point when completing still life will help you achieve the right scale, proportions and linework in your drawing.

Draw what you see. Not what you imagine you see.

Try to look more at the subject whilst drawing and less at your hand.

Hot tip: use your thumb and pencil to ‘measure’ the subject from your perspective. Make sure you hold out your arm is out straight so that your measuring is consistent. This helps you identify the ratios on your drawing e.g. the width of the flower petal is half the height.

Step five: finishing touches

When you feel that you have captured the essence of your still life artwork in pencil, it is a good time most likely for a cup of tea.

Ideally, going away from your artwork and coming back later will give you a fresh perspective and you can review your artwork for any final enhancements.

You may need to go over the linework in your drawing in a Art Fineliner or if using the tablet with a thicker line in your drawing. You may find that by omitting parts of the drawing that you feel ‘no longer work’ will help to achieve a more stylised final artwork.

Then practice, practice, practice. Importantly, remember to have fun.

If you tried our guide be sure to share your artwork by tagging @tasha_rui on Instagram.

Inspired to learn more?

If you are starting out, ask your local art store where they recommend you take drawing art classes. Local art galleries sometimes offer affordable drawing classes.

During the pandemic lockdowns, some art tutors are going online with many wonderfall tutors on YouTube. Domestika offers amazing affordable online tuition as well.