Working with perspective

In a recent workshop with Leigh Ellis we reviewed the artist rules of perspective that is used to make objects look three dimensional on a two dimensional piece of paper.  It also conveys scale and realism to a painting. 

This is done using: converging lines, vanishing points, color intensity and shifting, edge definition, shadows and highlights.  

For example, the converging lines in this sketch meet at the vanishing point on the right edge of the paper.  They were used to define the height of three people walking toward the vanishing point.  

   

The same converging lines and vanishing point were used for the watercolor, below along with the other tools mentioned above.  

• The light from above is brighter around the closest person, making both the highlights and shadows around them stronger. 
• The closest red umbrella is brighter, while the others are paler and shift to a red-blue.
• The edges of the closest person where light and dark meet are distinct, but they are less distinct on the further people.

In some cases additional vanishing points are needed to define your view.  For instance a house on a corner would need two vanishing points.  Shadows from the sun or clouds overhead would need additional vanishing points.   

GWS workshop with Iian Stewart

On Aug 16-18 2023,  I attended a three day watercolor workshop, hosted by the Georgia Watercolor Society at the Thomasville Center for the Arts.   The workshop “Painting Land, Sea and Sky” was lead by Iain Stewart, a sought after watercolor instructor.  

Iian is an avid sketcher, and he asked us to bring a sketch book to the workshop.  We used the sketch to make pencil sketches, take notes on design ideas, and paint studies and vignettes.  This is how every painting we did started.

A list of the watercolors Iian uses was suggested for the workshop.  I normally use just 10 colors, and mix what I need from these.  But I was interested in seeing how Iian would use these other colors, and this was my opportunity to try them: Cadmium Scarlet, Naples yellow, Undersea green, Cobalt turquoise, Phthalo blue turquoise, Verditer blue, and Lavender.  

Iian helped us improve our sketching and painting ability. I learned new techniques and was reminded of techniques I learned long ago but forget to use.  

Tomasville is a lovely historic Georgia city.  The downtown has several nice local shops, restaurants and drinking establishments.  While walking around we looked for the lost quail and one of the oldest live oak trees.  We enjoyed tasting some unique drinks at 1861distillery , had a wonderful meal at Chop House on the Bricks and took home some amazing chocolates from sweet cacao chocolates.  

Fly fishing and sketching

I have been fishing my whole life.  By the time I was five, I was helping clean the fish we caught.  Blue fish, Striped Bass, Rock fish, Porgies and Blowfish were all common in the sound and bay.  I spent my time near the water, on the water, and in the water every day of summer vacation.  If we weren't fishing we were scalloping or clamming or sailing or swimming or walking the beach.    

I learned to Fly fishing much later in life, but found it to be just as wonderful as my childhood summers.  I am outside standing in a clean rocky stream surrounded by forests, fields and mountains.  I fish for trout use barbless hooks, and practice catch-and-release.  Casting is more challenging and getting your line tangled more common, and the frustration can ruin an otherwise great day.

When I start to get frustrated I find a place to sit, drink some water and do a few sketches.  I carry a small  pocket sketch book and pencil in my waders.  I sketch what ever is around me.  After a few sketches I am calm and ready to start fishing again.

 

JCCS Dynamic watercolor workshop

I spent an unexpectedly cold week at the John C. Campbell Folk School in March while taking a class in Composing Dynamic Watercolors.  Taught by instructor Annie Pais and assistant Suzy Deslauriers. We had hoped to be able to do some plien air painting around campus capturing spring unfolding, but it was too cold for that.  Instead we stayed in the studio, painting still life compositions or from photos.  Working in the studio all week had advantages.  We had group exercises and provide were able to provide feedback to each other while actively painting.  I really enjoyed the social interactions and watching everyones paintings come to life around me.

We started our class with some drawing exercises.  We did several blind contour sketches of each other while sitting in our discussion circle.  This turned out to be a lot of fun, both to do and to share.  Sometimes the images look more like a Picasso, then the person we were drawing.  Mine exhibited disembodied heads and disjointed faces, but the drawings still contained aspects of the people I was drawing.  

Then we moved on to do some blind contour, contour and thumbnail sketches of objects around the studio.  We arranged several objects then used a view finder to help us select the composition to use for our thumbnail sketches.

Blind contour

Contour

Thumbnail sketch

Fish live in beautiful places

I carry a small moleskin sketch book and pencil in a pocket of my Fish Pond chest pack, just in case I feel the urge to sketch while I am out on the river.  When I take a break to drink some water, change a fly or unravel a knot, I will stop to do a quick sketch of a falls, riffle, river bank or other angler.

After spending the afternoon fishing the Gibbon River where it twists through grassy meadows in Yellowstone NP (photo to the right), I did a quick pencil sketch of the bright purple wild flowers along the trail.  I included some notes to help me identify the plant at a later time.  It matches the description of the Thick Stemmed Aster, Eurybia integrifolia.

Sketching at the Georgia Museum of Art

Once a month the Georgia Museum of Art is open in the evening for people who want to sketch.  On these nights there are few people at the museum besides me and the docents.  I take pad of watercolor paper and my watercolor pencils, but no water (liquids are not allowed in the galleries).  The museum has folding seats that can be borrowed for use in the museum.  I can sit and sketch a piece of art without being in anyone else's way; it's my own private art museum sketch crawl.

Not all art museums allow sketching, and sometimes certain exhibits are excluded.  Some allow access to different galleries at different times and others have sketching led by art instructors.

• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 
• Cincinnati Art Museum
• Denver Art Museum
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 

Why sketch or paint something someone else made?  I agree with Laura Murphy Frankstone sketching is cathartic, and sketching is a chance to indulge my interest in art work I personally find interesting.

Sketching can be of whole pieces of art or just sections of art, focusing on the design, use of color, use of negative space, or other elements.  Sometimes I go to practice certain things, but more often it is just for relaxation.  You can learn a lot from the art work of master painters, and seeing the art in person is inspiring.

The Getty Museum has shared some good tips for drawing in a museum.  If you're in New York there is a sketch group that includes outings to museums.  You never know who you might see sketching at the museum.

Attack of the Irish snails

I did some sketching of colorful native land snails I found on one of the day trips.  The sketching turned into race, as the snails decided to come out and crawl around the sketch pad.  Trying to quickly capture various poses as they continued to change remedied me of drawing class exercises.  We may think of snails as slow, but when your trying to sketch them they definitely move faster then you expect.  Below is a short video of the snail sketching race we had.

After I was finished sketching various snail poses, I used watercolor pencils to add colors to the snail shells.  I love the colors of these pencils and how they blend.  Using these pencils was what initially got me interested in watercolor painting.

The snails were not harmed by the encounter and were all returned to the wild after the sketching event.  They even received a snack in return for their assistance.  They enjoyed both the plant material I provided as well as my sketch pad!

Mulrany salt marsh, Ireland

The Essence of Mulrany, is up on the hill side.  This location provided us with ever changing panoramic views of Clew Bay.   Clouds danced across the sky casting shadows across the water and land.  The tide moved in and out of the salt marsh changing the puzzle shaped pieces of land.

At low tide neighborhood sheep would graze on the salt marsh.  Moving from puzzle piece to puzzle piece by climbing down to cross the muddy creeks.  Farmers would send out their Border collies to herd the sheep back before the tide returned.  Sheep would run to and fro trying to avoid the dog, which usually managed to round them all up and herd them to nearby pens.  Any sheep that were left out on the marsh through the next high tide would have to stand where they were until the water again receded.  Sheep can't swim.  During one round up I watched the dog herd the sheep across the pedestrian bridge.

I did some sketches the salt marsh from the windows (high tide on the left and low tide on the right):

 

I also did a few Plein air pencil and watercolor sketches of the salt marsh and surrounding area during my walks (below).

Art Before Breakfast or sketching at dawn

I had recently purchased the book Art before breakfast, bye Danny Gregory, and I decided to bring the book and a pencil sketch kit with me to Ireland.  I found the exercises in the book a great way to kick start my days.  

I had not done any contour or negative space sketches in a very long time.  Doing these exercises again helped me improve my sketching.  I reminded me to spend more time looking at my subjects and less time looking at my sketch pad.  It also used some of the exercises to practice sketching while using binoculars, which proved to be very useful during this trip.

The morning exercises warmed me up and got me ready to head out into the county side and sketch.  Below are just the first four days of exercises to give you an idea of what I did:

Mullranny, Ireland

For the majority of our Ireland trip we stayed at the Essence of Mulrany, an Artist retreat in Mayo County Ireland.  To reach our destination we took the west bound train from Dublin to Westport.  The train ride was very comfortable and quite enjoyable.  I had time to converse with friends, read and even do a few sketches using my Derwent Graphite/Charcoal Sketching Wallet while in route.  The wallet includes water-soluble pencils, graphite and tinted charcoal pencils.  You can see my test squares on the right of the first image.

 

The Essence of Mulrany, is up on the hill side.  The large studio area is setup for a variety of artistic pursuits.  The majority of our group, including my husband, are glass artists and they enjoyed utilizing the studio's glass working facilities.

The location provided us with tranquil views of Clew Bay and Croagh Patrick in the distance.  Offering an ever changing panoramic dance of clouds and shadows moving across the water and land.  The beauty of the country side called to me.  

I rotated between painting view from the large picture window in the lounge, painting from photos taken during our group outings, and plein air sketching while wandering the neighborhood.