First Grade Still-life: Composition and Blending

Artists in first grade drew and painted a variety of natural and man-made objects

Students used their hands as view-finders, like a camera lens, to "zoom" in and out and learn to crop their image to a specific composition of their own choosing, including or excluding elements.

This artist has zoomed in closely to the fruit, cropping out part of the pitcher.

Students used pencil to sketch and oil pastel to blend colors on the objects.

The composition here is zoomed out, showing the whole table and all the objects on it.

Green apple and red pear peeking out from the side of large white pitcher.

Students used warm and cool watercolors to create the backgrounds. The warm colors were used for the surfaces, and the cool colors created shadows cast by the objects.

Finally, students outlined the objects in black oil pastel to create visual "pop" and delineate edges that might have disappeared during blending or painting.