Imaginary Still Life

I love this project because it addresses so many design principles. After looking at many examples of still life paintings, the class discussed how artists make objects look three dimensional, like they are in front of other objects, farther away or closer up on the table, and grounded (rather than floating in space). I set out a large group of items for them to draw from life. After the students had drawn about 7 items, they outlined them with Sharpie, painted them with watercolor and cut them out. The items were arranged on a background made to look like a table. Each girl conferred with me to make sure the space was used well and the object's placements made sense before gluing the items down.