Category Archives: Domestic Sketching

Plunging Into Paint

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I’ve spent a few years simply drawing stuff, trying to figure out how to draw something I’m looking at in its proper proportions.  I’ve done thousands of sketches with this as the singular goal.  I love lines and my passion for fountain pens has driven me forward.  When it came color and paint, it has been done as an afterthought and mostly like a kid using crayons to color in the shapes.

More recently, though, I’ve realized that I’ve separated, too much, my drawing from my painting and that I need to think more about the paint as I draw.  I’ve found this hard to do because I get into the process of making lines and forget completely about notions of color.

I decided that the only way to break through this was to go to start with paint, try to figure out paint, and maybe then I could integrate it into my sketching.  Just for good measure I decided that I should set aside my watercolors, at least for these experiments, and use a medium I’ve never used before.  Here is the first, and only acrylic painting I’ve ever done.

Of course I had no idea what I was doing but I used acrylic’s fast-drying ability, its opacity, and its laying ability to scrape together a paint brush.  Oh…and a big dose of YouTube how-to videos about acrylics helped considerably.

My real interest in mediums other than watercolor, though, is gouache.  I like that it meshes well with watercolor, that I can carry it with me, and that it’s easy to clean up.  So, I painted the same brush in gouache.  I had a harder time with the layering, suggesting I need to get a better handle on water control.  You sure need to use less water – a lot less water.  If you don’t previous layers will lift and mix with the paint you’re putting down.

I had fun doing both of these paintings.  I felt way out of my element due to the lack of outlines but that has its redeeming features as well.  In addition to these paintings I’ve covered half a dozen sheets of watercolor paper with blotches, mixes, blends, and value scales.  I guess this is the equivalent to when I used to draw lots of cubes in perspective (grin).

 

Domestic Sketching

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Urban sketching is a popular topic on the internet and in the summer I love to spend my time, on location, drawing pretty much anything.  When winter comes, however, I’m always at a loss because snow and cold prevent those activities.

So, I turn to “domestic sketching,” the act of drawing stuff that’s laying around the house.  For me it doesn’t matter what it is as it’s the process of drawing that’s important to me, not what the product is.  On this day I drew a shoe.  I spent a lot of time blocking in this drawing because I wanted the proportions to be right but the ink drawing went pretty quickly once the locations of all the major parts was determined.  Maybe I’ll draw its brother next.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), DeAtramentis Document black

 

Doodling At Home

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I’ve been spending a lot of time doing various doodles at home because we’re having a flurry of snowstorms (pun somewhat intended) and so it hasn’t been pleasant to get out to sketch.  Here are a couple examples:

What would it be like if I were an ant?  I started with the mushroom and just started adding stuff I could see around it, if I were an ant.

I see people sketching leaves a lot.  I’ve done a few but never been able to get the ‘rusty’ spots that leaves get as they degrade.  I spend some time with this idea, trying varying amounts of water, working wet-on-wet.  I’m out of my depth when I try wet-on-wet I’m afraid.  This was my best result, which only says that the others were even worse (grin).

I won’t bore you with any more, mostly because I’m too lazy to scan them.  I will say that these sessions were productive and I learned a little.  Besides, sloshing paint and ink around is always fun.

Sketching Le Coin

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I’ve been spending a lot of time lately making various blotches of gouache on paper and watching YouTube videos on its use.  At this point I’m thoroughly confused.  Of course it’s possible to use gouache just like watercolor but it seems that its real power is when you start applying it in more opaque layers, which moves it closer to oils in both application and in how you mix colors.  As I said, I’m thoroughly confused.

I got tired of making endless color spots, color wheels, etc. and decided I should try to paint something.  I chose one of my favorite little stores, Le Coin.  The result doesn’t do it justice as I don’t really know how to handle gouache in any context, including Le Coin, but here it is – my first gouache painting.

Gaining Inspiration And Trying Stuff

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I do more sketching ‘off camera’ than I post on my blog.  I do these for a variety of reasons.  Most are done quickly for the simple reason that I need to draw something.  Sometimes I do them to try out a new pen or paint.  Sometimes they’re done to practice a technique, like the little gouache paintings I did a couple days ago (horrible by the way).

But sometimes, quite often actually, I draw something inspired by something I see on the internet.  Most I try to mimic the style of the artist in an attempt to walk a mile in their shoes.  Mostly this fails in a ways similar to me trying to walk in high heels, but these are also some of my favorite things to do as there’s absolutely no pretense that I’m creating something “from” myself.  It’s sort of an out of body experience.

I thought I’d share with you a bit of that stuff, with apologies to their real authors, the internet sketchers who share their work so we can appreciate, enjoy and maybe learn from them.  This first sheet is from a Canson XL multi-media (7×10) pad that sits next to my laptop.  It’s full of stuff like this.

The top right is from a set of fire hydrants drawn by Arlene from the Artist’s Journal Workshop.  She did a sketch of several very colorful hydrants and when I saw the yellow one with a lime green top I had to draw it.  I decided, however, to extend its top a bit, give it a head tilt of personality and I added a pair of eyes.  I was having fun.

I’m sad to say that I can’t remember who did the geranium plant but it was a very freehand version of one and so I followed suit.  Leaves and flowers randomly stuck on the page as I tried to turn a piece of paper real estate into a geranium.

The little landscape came from the background of one of those pesky ads that precede a YouTube video, with a lot of ‘it could look like this’ thrown in for good measure.

Lastly the lonely girl.  She was was from another commercial and standing on a street.

Erik Davis posted a sketch similar to this, saying he was trying something different.  I thought that a good idea so I followed suit.  It’s about 3×4.

If you’ve taken any of Liz Steel’s great courses you know that there are lots of things to copy and/or mimic.  While you’re supposed to be doing it ‘your way’, I often try to do it Liz’s way.  I’m rarely successful because her style is so much more loose and quick than my own.  It always feels good to me, however, so I’ll continue doing it.

This time it’s a sketch slightly in advance of her Watercolor on Location course that starts Sept 4th.  I’m signed up for it so I have access to the introductory lessons.  Liz’s sketch is somewhat more complete than mine.  Hers is also a LOT bigger than mine (mine is about 4×5).

Walking in the shoes of another artist is probably not for everyone but I find it very informative.  It makes me appreciate even more how special their art work is and I think I learn quite a lot from doing it.  Doing this also causes one to understand that you  can’t precisely walk in another artist’s shoes.  It’s more like walking in high heels if you’re an old man.  But give it a try.  You might like it.