Posts Tagged ‘sketches’
New Sketch
"Watering Cans"
This is a quick sketch of two of my wife’s watering cans done as a demo for a recent class. The cans sit on a table top and were catching the bright late summer light. The pattern of light and shadows caught the eye of one of the students so we used it as the subject for the day. The color scheme is nearly mono-chromatic, using a limited palette of cobalt and ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, and some quinacridone burnt scarlet.
It is large for a sketch, nearly filling a quarter sheet (11″ x 15″) paper. The subject was sketched in 2B pencil on the paper first, large washes were placed on the cans first, the main shadow on the table surface was added next. Once dry, shadows were added on the spout and side of the large can and on the underside of the handle on the small can. The work was finished up with some glazes of blue and raw sienna on the cans to produce some 3 dimensional modeling and ambient light effects on the shaded side of the cans.
New Summer Work
“Along The Way”
9″ x 13″
Unframed
$235
It’s been almost two months to the day since the last post!? Summer is a busy season for me with exhibits, shows and fairs. The unfortunate reality is that actual painting time tends to get squeezed. I have been more productive lately, with a number of works in progress and a few completed.
As is the case for me quite often, this work began as a search through old sketchbooks for ideas and inspirations. In this case, a very old sketchbook contained a color sketch completed in the little town of East Arlington, Vermont in 1994.
East Arlington Vermont – Sept 7, 1994
The sketch is painted as if it was peak foliage, but it couldn’t have been that early in September. Anyone who has looked at other posts on this blog knows my attraction to raking light and sunlit structures. Looking at this one again inspired me create a similar feel but in the summer season.
My first thumbnail sketch was an attempt to keep both the feel and the scene as it was depicted in the original sketch.
After completing the first thumbnail, I decided to try another with the structures moved to the top of the composition and to give up the attempt to keep them as they were in the original sketch (and still are in East Arlington!).
This was the thumbnail that I decided to go with – with a couple changes. In the final painting, farm buildings were switched with each other – the main building ended up to the right and the “el” building to the left. In addition, the both were pushed a bit farther into the distance and another building was added to the left to create more distance in the final work.
