Still Life Drawing in a Cubist Style Using Carbon Paper
By Sheila Ceccarelli
This is a fun workshop and great way to study a still life and explore Cubist ideas of ‘temporal frames’; drawing ‘time and space’.
To support this exercise you may want to look at Cubist still life studies such as ‘Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle’ by Pablo Picasso and ‘Still Life with a Pair of Banderillas’ by Georges Braque.
The still life drawing below was created by a year 9 student, (aged 14 years) in an hour and ten minute workshop on A3 paper with carbon paper.
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Samantha Barnes
May 10, 2013 @ 5:38 pm
I absolutely love this idea, not only for the children but for me! Great thinking, I love the printmaking feel.
Samantha
Nikki De Marco
May 11, 2013 @ 8:25 pm
This is a fabulous and original way of working; the end result is striking and will allow even the weaker students to produce something worthy. For any art teachers needing to make contextual links, Ben Nicholson’s drawings are certainly recommended. Thanks Sheila; this was a great project for all ages and levels!
Nikki
Sheila Ceccarelli
May 12, 2013 @ 9:52 am
Thanks Nikki and Samantha for the encouragement! I’d never thought of using carbon paper myself until Paula started using it with younger children to create the feeling of old prints – and I loved the feel – Such a simple idea – but I agree does create endless possibilities for use – Would be good to always have a piece of carbon paper in the back of a sketchbook so it’s there when you need it!
Let us see what you do with carbon paper!
Next week’s post will be showing how teenagers ‘battled it out’ with paint!
Claire Secrett
March 3, 2014 @ 1:20 pm
I too have found this a very satisfying exercise to do. I have used it with a group of adults who are working on the City & Guilds Creative Techniques Courses. I took it a stage further the following week by using viewfinders to identify ‘marks’ within their final pieces,so that these could be used to develop pattern for drawing and print. They came up with some wonderful examples which I unfortunately am unable to show. They had been struggling with the concept of random pattern and this helped a lot. They also really enjoyed the drawing exercise.
Paula Briggs
March 4, 2014 @ 12:23 pm
Hi Claire thats great – well done for extending it and I love the viewfinder idea to seek out patterns!
June Nelson
January 2, 2016 @ 9:41 pm
In January I am piloting a Hands on Modern Art course for older adults with the help of a U3A art group, learning about some major art movements visually rather than just verbally. This is a great exercise to lead them gently into the world of Cubism. I look forward to trying it with them and will report back.. Thanks Sheila.
Sheila, AccessArt
January 2, 2016 @ 11:49 pm
Thanks for letting us know about that – sounds interesting. Look forward to hearing how it goes!
Claire Blundell Jones
January 11, 2016 @ 11:07 am
Found this a really useful starting activity as a way to remember the students’ names and recycling polystyrene!