People Sketches and Sketching

Some sketches of people. I have to admit that I tend towards pictures that don't have any people in them. But I do quite enjoy sketching people - especially when they have their backs to me! I'm a people watcher, nothing like sitting in busy places like airports and city centers watching people hustling and bustling about.



Someone gave me this photo they had taken of me sketching out in the gardens. bad repro as my scanner is not connected and I had to take a photo of the photo!

Weekend tomorrow and lots of work planned.
1. Hoping to play with the new pastels and do some painting too - plein air if the sun is shining.
2. Need to order some panels (decisions to be made over which sort to get - input welcomed) and a wet canvas carrier too.
3. Admin time too - no escaping that.
4. Also need to think about a sketchbook for the sketchbook exchange I have joined. To make a homemade one or to buy one? Another question!

That will do for a start.

Happy Friday everyone!

Staircase

I've had one of those really frustrating days - had a list made of things to do - managed to do two of them. HUGE pile of ironing done including all the sheets! And I ordered my supply of walnuts and brazil nuts from my favourite supplier. Apart from that nothing done on my list.

Could not get myself motivated to do any art at all ................. well, I started several things. thought about a lot of things and did nothing at all. I've got a number of ideas brewing and as a result can't decide what to start with.

One thing I have been thinking about is having a separate blog for my sketches. I can't decide whether this would be a good thing or not.

Virtual Sketch Date - Peeled Tangerine

This is this months Virtual Sketch Date image How many media can you put in one sketch? Started with graphite but I didn't like it - so I added some colour pencil and then some watercolour and finally a little pen! It was nice to take a day off serious painting and just sit in front of the TV and doodle.


Also I doodled some tools my husband has lying around (he's rebuilding computers after he blew up my PC) and particularly liked the adjustable spanner (wrench). I love hardware stores - especially the power tool section. I've always wanted a router - with all the extras. What an amazing piece of hardware! One of my ambitions is to learn to make a dovetail joint, but the traditional way, no power tools. Do you have a secret ambition?

Chocolates

I did get out to paint plein air today but I have it posted on a private blog for critiquing so just some sketches today of chocolates. I've given myself the evening off practical work for more study and note taking.

I've been carefully studying other artists landscape work and in particular their brushwork. Sargent is a wonderful example of outstanding brushwork. It all seems to be about suggestion and letting the viewer create their own interpretation from the information given. This is the painting of Sargents for which I had been searching (Thank you, Karen, for finding it. Jeanette, the one you gave me is very similar and is as good an example) which shows how he masterfully demonstrates this suggestive quality (I had in particular been drawn to the silverware on the table). One of the books I recently brought says that you should paint according to what your eye sees - if your focus is on one object that is what should have the most detail while the peripheral objects should be more suggestive with only as much detail as is necessary to reveal them as they would appear in your field of vision.

I've also been reading, both in books and on blogs, about minimising the tonal values in a plein air landscape to 4 or at most 5 in an attempt to simplify the landscape. Severtal artists advocate doing a thumbnail tonal value sketch and also a thumbnail colour study. Kevin McPherson (Landscape Painting Inside and Out) suggests using a large brush and doing 2" x 3" thumbnails using the the closest colours to the landscape. Vicki McMurray (Mastering Colour) also suggests colour thumbnails to check the balance of the picture. Both if these, I feel are things I need to include in my practice as I am sure they simplify the actual painting process. Lots to chew over and absorb!

Some wonderful snapshots on my drive in to paint today - the soldier sitting on a chair in a tented camp with towel draped around his shoulders, his friend giving him a haircut and there were boys playing cricket in our street, the wickets set up either end of a very short "22 yards" were concrete blocks!

York

Today just a sketch - from York.

My father was a champion clay pigeon shooter - he won competitions the world over. He had a theory that anyone could hit the first clay - the action was instinctive. He said that after that it would all fall apart because you would try to think about what you had done and repeat it and but the results were invariably a miss. From that point you had to learn how to shoot. I think that this also applies to painting, at least for me. On successful days its intstinct - I don't think about what I am doing, I just apply the paint. The problem arises the next painting when I try to think what I did the last time and repeat the prescription and it just doesn't work. Either the mood is different or the change in subject matter changes how I react. Today was one of the days when I tried to recreate whatever it was that worked yesterday and just couldn't quite capture it.

Back to work tomorrow and dreading it. I've had the most wonderful 10 days at home, painting and doing artistic research. I'm going to try and do sketches in my lunch half-hour (weather permitting) and come home ready to paint.

New Year's Resolution 4 - Sketch regularly.

Lake Sinclair

A couple of sketches from Georgia.
New Year's resolution No 1 - Do some art every day - even if only a sketch.

Happy New Year

Watercolor and pen from my sketchbook. Two of my favorite drinks!
I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! May your 2009 be filled with happiness.

Jennifer

From my sketchbook
A day of fiddling around and not getting anything done.