Still life black and white. How to draw a decorative black and white still life in different ways

Chess stylization of still life. Master class with photos

Thank you for your attention! I wish you all creative success!

The word "still life" comes from the French phrase "nature morte" and means mortified or dead nature. But it seems to me that the essence of this type of art is better conveyed by the English expression “still life” - “motionless, frozen life.” After all, in its essence, a still life is nothing more than a captured piece of life.

While collecting material for this article, I encountered certain difficulties. At first glance, photographing a still life is as easy as shelling pears. I put a cup on the table, added some details to it, set the light and clicked my shutter. Models are always at hand, unlimited time for shooting. Convenient and minimal costs. That’s why novice photographers love this genre. And some achieve very interesting results. Go to any photography website, select the appropriate section and admire the truly gorgeous pictures. But time passes, and many people have questions: “Why film this? Who needs this? What will I get from this?” Not finding answers to these questions, many switch to wedding, children's or animal photography, which provide a certain income. Still life is not particularly respected by masters of photography. This is not a profitable business. If anything can bring, it’s only aesthetic satisfaction. And they shoot still lifes from time to time, so to speak, to hone their skills.

But there are still a few who see in a still life something more than just a beautiful picture. It is to these masters of still life that I dedicate my article.

I admit, at first I wanted to make a selection of works by photographers that I like, and which rightfully occupy first places in the ratings on various photo sites. And then the question arose: “why?” Everyone knows how to use the Internet, most have studied photo sites at least once, are familiar with the best works, and information about the photographer they are interested in can always be found using a search engine. I decided to talk about Special Photographers - those whose work turns the recognized canons upside down, who really brought something new to still life photography, who managed to see something extraordinary in ordinary things. You can treat their creativity differently: admire it or, conversely, not accept it. But, definitely, their work cannot leave anyone indifferent.

1. Cara Barer

Kara Barer (1956), a photographer from the United States, chose one subject for filming - a book. Transforming it, she creates amazing book sculptures, which she photographs. You can look at her photographs endlessly. After all, each such book sculpture carries a certain meaning, and an ambiguous one.

2. Guido Mocafico

Swiss photographer Guido Mocafico (1962) is not limited to one subject in his work. He is interested in different objects.

But even taking a single subject, he gets amazing works. His series “Movement” is famous. It seems that the watch mechanisms are simply taken, but each one, if you look closely, has its own character.

In still lifes, as is known, “inanimate nature” is photographed. In his “Snakes” series, Guido Mocafico broke this rule and took a living creature as the subject of the still life. Snakes curled up in a ball create an amazing, bright and unique picture.

But the photographer also creates traditional still lifes, shooting them in the Dutch style, and using truly “inanimate objects” as props.

3. Carl Kleiner

Swedish photographer Karl Kleiner (1983) uses the most ordinary objects for his still lifes, arranging them into whimsical pictures. Karl Kleiner's photographs are colorful, graphic and experimental. His imagination is limitless, he uses completely different materials, from paper to eggs. Everything, as they say, goes to work.

4. Charles Grogg

Still lifes of the American Charles Grogg are made in black and white. The photographer also uses ordinary household items found in every home for filming. But by experimenting with their arrangement and combining them in unusual combinations, the photographer creates truly fantastic pictures.

5. Chema Madoz

I am sure that the works of Chema Madoz (1958), a photographer from Spain, are familiar to many. His black and white still lifes, executed in a surreal style, leave no one indifferent. The photographer’s unique perspective on ordinary things is amazing. Madosa's works are full of not only humor, but also deep philosophical meaning.
The photographer himself says that his photographs were taken without any digital processing.

6. Martin Klimas

There is also no Photoshop in the works of Martin Klimas (1971), a photographer from Germany. Only a short, or rather super-short, shutter speed. His specially developed technique allows you to capture a unique moment that the human eye cannot even see. Martin Klimas shoots his still lifes in complete darkness. Using a special device, the flash is turned on for a split second at the moment the object is broken. And the camera captures the Miracle. Here are just vases with flowers!

7. John Chervinsky

American John Czerwinski (1961) is a scientist working in the field of applied physics. And his still lifes are a kind of mixture of science and art. Here you won’t understand: either a still life, or a textbook on physics. When creating his still lifes, John Czerwinski uses the laws of physics, obtaining incredibly interesting results.

8. Daniel Gordon

Daniel Gordon (1980), a photographer from America, is not concerned about scientific issues. When photographing still lifes, he chose a different path. He prints out color pictures downloaded from the Internet, crumples these pieces of paper, and then wraps various objects in them. It turns out something like paper sculptures. Bright, beautiful, original.

9. Andrew B. Myers

The still lifes of Andrew Myers (1987), a photographer from Canada, cannot be confused with any others - they are always recognizable. A simple, gentle, calm background, a lot of empty space, which creates a feeling of the image being filled with light and air. Most often he uses objects from the 70s and 80s to create still lifes. His works are graphic, stylish and evoke a certain nostalgia.

10. Regina DeLuise

To create her works, Regina DeLuise (1959), a photographer from the USA, does not use SLR photographic equipment. She chose a different method - she prints negatives from film on special rag paper. Her poetic images contain a wide range of tones and a variety of textures. Still lifes are very tender and poetic. Amazing play of light and shadows.

11. Bohchang Koo

Bohchang Koo (1953), a photographer from South Korea, prefers white. The still lifes he created - white on white - are simply amazing. They are not only beautiful, but also carry a certain meaning - the preservation of ancient Korean culture. After all, the photographer specifically travels around the world, looking for objects of the cultural heritage of his country in museums.

12. Chen Wei

Chen Wei (1980), a photographer from China, on the other hand, finds inspiration for his work close to home. Featuring strange spaces, scenes and objects, he uses props that others have thrown into landfills.

13. Alejandra Laviada

Alejandra Laviada, a photographer from Mexico, uses destroyed and abandoned buildings for her photography, creating still lifes from objects found there. Her still lifes tell real stories about the people who lived in these buildings and used things left behind as unnecessary.

Still life photographs are known to be quite common. Often, many photographers like to present their still lifes in black and white. This involves finding objects, comparing everyday objects in your environment, and enhancing differences in textures and tones. Converting to black and white gives you many options when viewing the photo itself.

Black and white still life allows you to focus on the photograph's lines, textures and shapes. In this case, it is much easier to focus on these elements, since you do not need to be distracted by colors. A good use of this technique will not only allow you to get a more objective image in terms of its integrity, but also increase the tension between different objects and materials. Such combinations can be found everywhere, for example, in the park, on the beach, etc. You can take photographs of any objects. In addition, you can photograph objects in pairs or in larger quantities. It should be noted that it is not recommended to use the same methods to convert a photograph into black and white.

To create a black and white still life you must have:

Students perform decorative still life at an art school using the following method:

1. Arrangement of objects on a sheet.
2. Transformation (form stylization).
3. Overlapping or intertwining silhouettes with each other.
4. Filling silhouettes with texture and decorative solutions.

As you know, a still life is a production of inanimate objects. In easel painting, still lifes are painted traditionally: they sculpt the volume of objects, convey chiaroscuro, linear and aerial perspective, space... In decorative still life, this becomes unimportant. The shape of the depicted objects becomes flat and conventional. There is no chiaroscuro. Instead, each silhouette is worked out decoratively.

The transformation of form needs to be discussed separately. Its essence lies in transforming the original form of an object into a conventional one. That is, the drawing is simplified and stripped of unnecessary details. The form is reduced to a conditionally geometric one, that is, it is based on simple geometric shapes (circle, rectangle, triangle...). For example, a jug can be composed of a circle and a cylinder, and top and bottom can be completed with circles or ellipses. Thus, only the nature of the object remains. He must be recognizable. And the contours will already be transformed and brought to the general style.

Overlaying or braiding silhouettes- This is a technique in decorative art and design. The overlapping of silhouettes on top of each other is understandable by definition - this is when objects obscure each other and the image becomes, as it were, multi-layered. But braiding is more difficult. For example, when part of a jug is obscured by an apple, the intersecting parts of the jug and apple may be rendered by the artist in a completely different color. Objects become as if “transparent” and their intersecting parts are visible to the viewer. The silhouettes of objects are intertwined in such an intricate way that, as a result, they are sometimes difficult to distinguish. And this gives decorative work a special appeal.

Filling the outlines of objects with texture- is not particularly difficult. You can spray paint, you can lay the paint in chaotic strokes, etc. But filling the silhouette with a decorative solution is more difficult. The artist comes up with some kind of “ornament”, although this word is not entirely suitable here. He fills the silhouette with this “ornament”. This “ornament” is created on the basis of a generative line. A formative line is a line that forms the outline of an object. For example, the outline of a Greek amphora will be gracefully curved. Therefore, the interior decoration of the silhouette will be based on lines curved in a similar way. Individual parts of such decoration of objects, as well as the objects themselves, can be braided. Also, you can skip the literal ornament between them. Therefore, this type of decoration is not just about filling silhouettes with texture or coloring alone. This is a more complex process. But also more spectacular, on which the essence of a decorative still life is based.