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In today’s post we are drawing what I call “tablescapes”1. To me it’s like an updated version of still life.

Two pages of a sketchbook where we can see on the left a brunch and on the right a sandwich for lunch. By Cris Tamay — On the left tempera sticks + neopastel II + pencil, on the right acryl gouache + tempera sticks + color pencil.

Food is one of my favorite things to draw digital and analog, specifically fruits, veggies and drinks so this is a very popular subject for me. Also, it usually combines patterns which are fun. You can take a look at my pinboard.

Look for a picture or more than one picture you like, and think which shapes look interesting or fun to you, what you want to draw and what you don’t. Maybe you want to draw 3 elements from one picture on a cloth from another one.

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Do you want to keep the proportions? Or maybe draw a giant wonky lemon with a tiny teapot?

Are you going to try to mimic the colors from the picture or maybe pick a reduced color palette? You might want to use this new material that just arrived in your mailbox. Or this might be the time to add some neon colors to your page.

Perhaps you want to draw the same picture multiple times with different materials and see how this affects the result.

The same kitchen illustration done twice with different materials and size. By Cris Tamay. — Same kitchen illustration in two different sketchbooks with some material differences.

Or try drawing the same picture in different formats, maybe an A6 portrait and then a full spread A5 horizontal.

You can also draw first with your dominant hand and then with your non-dominant one, or halfway through! Who knows, you may discover an interesting wonky shape that was hidden in your other hand.

How are you going to start? Sketching first and then drawing or maybe blocking shapes and later adding the linework? Perhaps you want to only do linework.

Are you adding shadows? For example, I am more of a flat color artist.

As you can see, there are endless possibilities and you can mix them, try one first, then another one, then a week later try again with other colors or media.

How does it sound? Did I get you run, get your sketchbook2 and start looking for new ways to fill it?

Let me know in the comments how do you usually approach your sketchbook and if you are willing to try something I explained above or if you already have!

ART PRACTICE: tablescapes

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