People who are new to still life probably place their emphasis on drawing the main objects. This is not really probably the best line to take, as normally the shadows are what will enhance your drawing.

Shadows can make your drawing, so they are vital to your work. To readily achieve these results you will require the following items. An eraser, your pencils, of course, a sheet of cartridge paper and some mounting board.

A backdrop for your work is needed and the board will have to be big enough to hold the shadows you wish to transfer to your paper.

So now you have your backdrop, you can put your chosen objects in front of it. Maybe something like bread and cheese with a plate with a knife on it or even a bunch of bananas. You then need a lamp of some sort to cast shadows, for instance from the right side.

A bit more help is needed here. With a 2B pencil you need to draw three inch squares on your backdrop. When you have done this, you do exactly the same on your cartridge paper, only with smaller one and a half inch squares and only with a light touch.

Have a good look on your screen before you put pencil to paper. Observe how the shadows fall. Easily seen, as they will be dark.

The shadows for me are the positive, important element, with the objects being the negative, less important element. Therefore I would always concentrate on the shadows first.

Shadowing will give your picture more interest. From the far left of your drawing, draw your shadow outlining. Noting how the shadow outline crosses over your boxes. Once you have done this, you can transfer this to your paper using a 2B pencil.

It may look slightly different however, but no need to get disheartened. Continue with filling in your outline shadows and you will begin to see the surprising shape it may take.

If you have completed your shadow lines, you can then begin to erase the boxes gently where your shadows are within. Try not to rub too hard, or your paper will suffer.

The dark shadows now have to be filled in, often you will have white spaces in between, but this is nothing to worry about. You have to exercise caution here, as it is all too easy to smudge your work doing this. Use a piece of white paper under your hand to remedy this.

To fill in shadows you need to do it by cross hatching quite closely with a 6B pencil. Draw straight lines across, then draw straight lines down. It doesn’t matter if the down strokes are on a slant. Don’t just fill in by scribbling in madly.

Use a 2B pencil to outline the objects at the back. Take your time filling in the object outlines, then erase the boxes in which they were contained, giving you both positive and negative shaping. Remember to sharpen your pencil before you start.

Still using the 2B pencil, on the darker parts of your objects, do some light cross hatching. Do not try to hard, try it on the edges for example.

Bear in mind you need some light tones too in your work. To finish it, use the 2B pencil to light hatch, just don’t do too much so that it intermingles with the shadows. Good Luck!