Still Life Drawing: Vanitas with White Colored Pencil on Black Paper Lesson

This is a great still life drawing lesson for High School Art-both beginners and advanced students. Students will learn how to set up and photograph their own still life composition and how to draw it realistically with white colored pencil on black paper. The lesson guides students to answer "what is a still life in art?" and how still life is used to communicate symbolic meanings. It includes instruction on the history of Dutch Golden Age still life traditions and how those traditions are carried on by contemporary artists in the present. Students will learn how to draw a still life with white colored pencil on black paper in an easy step by step manner. The lesson guides students to build skills with the white colored pencil on black paper with activities such as value scales and a smaller white pencil study. This lesson can also be used with advanced students in AP Studio Art and IB Visual Arts and includes thought provoking Art Journal research activities that I have used with my own IB Visual Arts students for years. This lesson is also great for students creating a college art portfolio.

This lesson includes:

• Teacher Guide with a materials guide and links to my favorite brands to purchase, sample day by day instruction schedule, links to editable rubric/ art journal activities and my terms of use.
• Powerpoint Slideshow with a link to Google Slides version that includes:

1. Engaging art history discussion slides on Dutch Vanitas Still Life symbolism and discussion questions and related artworks from contemporary artists.
2. Skill building activity to teach students how to use white colored pencil on black paper
3. Composition strategies and how to set up a still life for photography
4. Simple gridding strategy for drawing proportionally
5. Beautiful student examples of both reference photography and white colored pencil still life drawings.
6. Student Art Journal activity examples

• Reference images for skill building activity with images for every skill level from beginner to advanced
• 3 part Art Journal activity prompts for research and independent investigation
• Editable and PDF version of a rubric for assessment

If you have any questions about this resource or have trouble downloading please email me at ms.s@artfulideasclassroom.com

To see this resource and others in action in my classroom follow me on IG @artfulideasclassroom or read the Artful Ideas Classroom blog

If you like this lesson check out my other advanced art lessons Watercolor Portraits and What is Art? Discussion, Art Journaling and How to Critique

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