Fruity
Still Life

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Roll out the fruit! It's time to paint a still life. We'll show you how to make two pictures - the first one uses your computer and scissors, markers and glue. Make the second picture using only your computer drawing tools. We'll show you some cool computer tricks.

If you'd like to print these
instructions, go to your File menu and select Print.

What You'll Need:
Computer paint program, such as Kid Pix®
(or pattern from this page)
Crayons or markers
Paper / Scissors / Pencil / Glue stick

What To Do:

1. DRAW AT YOUR COMPUTER

• At your computer, open a painting program such as Kid Pix®, ClarisWorks/Paint, or Windows Paint. Draw the outline of 3 pieces of fruit. We drew an apple, pear, and bunch of grapes. Draw whatever type of fruit you'd like. Print 2 or 3 copies and cut each fruit shape out. Set them to one side while you do the next step.
  
  Another option:
  Print the pattern that we made (make 2 or 3 copies)
  
  
  2. DRAW AT YOUR DESK OR TABLE (not with your computer)
  
• Place a blank sheet of paper in front of you so that it is horizontal (it will be wider than it is tall). Using a pencil, draw line across the paper, going from left to right. The line should fall about half way between the top and bottom of the paper. The area below the line is the table top - color it with crayons or markers. The area above the line is the background of the still life - color it a different color than the table.
  
  
• Arrange your cut fruit shapes on the drawing of the table top. Experiment with different layouts - you don't have to use all the pieces. Overlap them a bit, this shows that one piece is in front of the other. The important thing to remember is that a piece of fruit that is in the back should be set higher up on the page than a piece of fruit which is in the front of the still life. This gives the picture "perspective". Perspective is what makes a picture have depth. Once you've decided on an arrangement for your fruit, color the pieces that you will use. Apple glue to the back of each piece and set them in place.
  
  A coloring hint:
  Use many different colors to decorate each piece of fruit. If you look at a real pear or apple you will see many colors in it.
  
  3. DRAW AT YOUR COMPUTER
  Now paint the same still life at your computer.
  
• Save your fruit drawing outlines in one file - name it FRUIT. Open a new file and draw a line that goes across your screen from left to right, about half way between the top and bottom of your screen. Save this file as TABLE.
  
• Look at your still life layout of cut shapes, and make a similar arrangement at your computer. To do this:
  - Open the file named FRUIT
  - Select a piece of fruit which sits at the back row in your still life layout
  - Copy this image
  - Open the file named TABLE
  - Paste the image in its correct place on the table top
  - Repeat the Copy/Paste process until your layout is complete. It's important to work from back to front.
  - Add color to the picture. A good way to color each piece is to use the paint bucket to fill the entire fruit shape. Add extra colors with the pencil, brush, or spray can tools. Color the table and background too.
  
  Here's another option: 1. Copy our still life of fruit (press on image and choose "Copy Image" 2. Open your computer paint program (such as Kid Pix®) and Paste this image onto the page. 3. Color this picture in your paint program. Try adding extra colors, the pear can have an over all color of gold, topped with splashes of green, brown, and yellow.
  
  Back to Still Life lesson
  
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Copyright 1998 Carol Sabbeth. All Rights Reserved.
Web page design by Carol Sabbeth, author of Kids' Computer Creations
Contact Carol by E-mail at: Sabbeth@aol.com