All posts in Still Life

This is the third and final installment of the Female Bust painting. In this part Daarken talks about adding in the final details to the painting. For those that would like the photo ref that was used for this painting, you can find it here.

This is part 2 of a 3 part series. In this video Daarken continues painting the female bust by blocking in value. Next week Daarken will finish up the painting by putting in the final details.

In this video Daarken will start a drawing from life of a female bust. In this first section Daarken will talk about blocking in the drawing. Since these videos are all filmed in real time, the video is broken up into three parts. This first part only covers blocking in the line drawing. Photo reference

In this video Daarken goes through the process of painting glass from a photo ref. This painting took about 30 minutes to paint. Homework – Paint a transparent object, simple! Post your painting in the forum Still Life – Painting Glass.

This tutorial continues with more still life painting but focuses on rendering an object with a matte surface as opposed to the shiny surface of an apple. This tutorial also shows how to render a high key object. Not all paintings need a lot of contrast. Egg photo ref Homework Create a still life painting…

Still life painting is an important step for any artist as it teaches the importance of form, light, and composition. Basic rendering fundamentals can be learned from still life painting. Even though most people may find the subject matter boring, you will be able to use this knowledge to paint creatures, characters, and virtually everything…

Breaking an organic complex form down into shapes can help you understand what the different planes are doing and how they create form. Daarken takes you through the process of doing a study from an Asaro head and explains how planes can help you create paintings from your imagination. Update – I just want to…

Now that we have gone over brushes and some of the basics of using Photoshop, we can finally start drawing. Again, starting with the basics is a key part to becoming a professional illustration. Without these building blocks your ability to draw and paint will suffer and quite possibly take you longer to progress as…

Still life painting is one of the foundations of every good artist. Learning form and value is crucial for any artist, and it all starts with a metal pot. Painting a metal pot or an apple may not seem like fun and games, but it is a necessary step in learning how to understand form,…