The Perpetually Dreaded Still Life...

As someone who went through a BFA program and now I'm working on my Master's degree in Art Education, I think I can officially say that I always have and probably always will hate drawing still life images. I find them incredibly difficult since I'm not someone who specifically enjoys drawing...at all.

That being said, I fully believe that they need to be taught in order to help fine-tune compositional skills, dimension/spatial understanding, as well as the basic idea of how shadows actually interact with other objects around them. Especially when working with graphite, I think they're absolutely necessary to help students learn how to use the full range of pencils as well as the effect they have on the image. Using a patterned fabric that would be able to be seen through glass objects, like we did in class, was a good way for us to practice how glass can warp/distort the patterns and it forces you to pay really close attention to the way tones shift through the glass as well.

Going from experience, I can say that I believe students are going to have the most trouble getting their proportions accurate. That seems to be the biggest issue beginners face in any still life assignment. This can be combated simply by showing the students all of the little tips and tricks to correcting proportions and spatial issues. Especially with cylindrical objects, the idea of drawing ovals and then connecting them to make sure it's proportioned accurately could be a very useful tool for the students.