At my Crealde Urban Sketching class, I noticed that my students who were working on thumbnail drawings were getting caught up in too much detail as they were sketching with lines. I was surprised at the amount of time they were taking for each thumbnail.
I decided that the best way to loosen them up was to do a quick demo. Rather then do a thumbnail, I decided to fill an entire page since they were watching from a six foot distance.
In this sketch I decided to focus on the foreground sculpture. I might usually try and make sure the base id fully visible but I decided to crop the base so the sculpture could be as large as possible.
Three totems were behind the sculpture I as sketching. Those totems were visually taller than the sculpture I was sketching, but I decided to make them smaller so the foreground sculpture was the largest thing in the sketch.
From where we were sketching the cube shaped cement bases were hidden by ferns. I explained that seeing those cubes was critical to seeing how the sculptures were grounded in the scene. The totems were also different sizes compared to one another but I grouped then as if they were all about the same size using one point perspective. The vanishing point as across the lake.
I lightly blocked in the basic shaped in pencil and then immoderately started blocking in large watercolor washed. The bridge was one big red wash the ferns in the foreground were bright yellow since they caught the sunlight and the rest was a messy wash of green and browns. The primary point o the lesson was that I never painted the sculptures until everything else was painted in around them. The sculpture are most visible because they are surrounded by darkness. The detailed line work in the totems was also added as a thought rather late in the process. For much of the time they were amorphous columns of white that I painted around. I enjoy the process most when I am playing with abstract patterns of light and dark puddles. Staying spontaneous and playful is the biggest challenge. If I feel the fun slippnig away, I close the sketchbook and walk away.
A lizard perched on the sculptures hand for the longest time and I sketched it into place. Most people don’t notice this little detail but for me it is everything. In general my sketch is a mess and that is what I encouraged my students to strive for. When one of my students complained about getting paint on her hands, I shouted out, “Yes! No you are cooking with grease!”