Sketchy Review

Sometimes, a camera is the wrong instrument!
Sometimes one needs a pen or pencil or brush to perk up one's brain cells, vision, and creativity.  Last week was a good week with my sketch book.  Partly because I was away from home (and the related responsibilities and distractions) and partly because I just got in the habit of drawing in the evening.

No one would mistake this for a photograph, but on the other hand, if you know your cameras, you would recognize this as a Canon Power Shot!  Hardly state of the art, but as much as I can manage.

 At the Nashua Artists' Breakfast Club I ran into Carolyn Gaudet who taught elementary school art for a gazillion years.  She described an exercise where second graders (!) marked their papers with one inch squares, mixed a big puddle of gray watercolor and then made splotches representing whatever she called out.
I scribbled splotchy shapes as ideas came to me.  Do you see the elephant?  The backside of the elephant?
After one had the splotches, Carolyn's class could add darker splotches for shaping and shadows.  I did that on some, but by then I was excited enough to get out my traveling watercolor set and add color.

I got better as I progressed.  I'm really happy with the bottom row.

 

 I am struggling with re-composing a painting I did from a picture I took back in Texas.  I probably need to do another couple of pages of thumbnails before I go to paint again  (or paint over the last one.)

I got out my stash of sheep faces and tried to really LEARN their facial construction.  Drawing a sheep nose from memory really DID. NOT. WORK!

 I can always tell (and you probably can as well), when I am drawing from "life" and when I'm drawing "out of my mind."

 "Out of my mind" isn't always BAD... just different.

These are of the Springfield Marriott lobby.  I didn't realize until I was cropping the scans just HOW far off "plumb" that room was.  OR that the plants and pillars were leaning East.  That's probably a good reminder that drawing on your lap doesn't always work.    

 
I was tickled that I conveyed the gist of the crystal chandelier... even if an average person would slide off that couch.

When I draw places we go, I always remember them better.  I had a great conversation with a waiter waiting for his ride and another hotel guest waiting for her dinner partner.  When a stranger thinks you are pre-occupied (and NOT drawing them !), they seem less shy and more willing to have a conversation.