2/12/2013 11:34:20 AM
I didn't plan to paint. I had studio chores and teacher responsibilities to fulfill but the lure of the rare sunny day was too great. I was in such a hurry I did not pack my markers for the study. Instead I found a trusty #2 pencil and a 3x5 notepad to do the thumbnail sketch. I knew this would be about color because of the brilliant red of the barns. The value structure was mostly midtone, some dark, and a bit of pure white. It is interesting how the values are usually darker on a blue sky day with the bits or light to let the viewer know about the sunshine. I thought painting in the sun would keep me warm but my paint quickly turned to taffy consistency and I had to jump up and down to stay warm. I'm sure that entertained all the cars passing by!
Thumbnail - many of the values are the same with some drastic color changes to show the light.
Here is the large version of the painting. It is for sale for 125.00 and can be purchased directly from my website.
2/8/2013 12:56:40 PM
I did a few more thumbnails based on a walk I took around a marsh. That morning there was snow on the ground and gray skies above. Blue skies delight us with dazzling shadows on the snow, but a gray sky is about subtle color and close values. On this particular day the sky was temperamental. Snow Squalls off in the distance cast dark blue curtains to the horizon. The sun was not absent but veiled so it peeked in and out of the steely sky as a bit of highlight. I did four thumbnails from the walk and decided I would do a 5x7 test painting of a vertical composition. In the thumbnail I had the sun to the left. As I painted I choose to move it to the right and introduce light coming in from the right so the composition would take on a zig zag pattern. It was hard to trust the values in the foreground. I wanted to make them lighter but then it would compete with the light in the sky.
The four thumbnails take me up to 9 total.
Squall 5x7 Oil
And now the thumbnails
2/5/2013 5:13:19 PM
Welcome to my not-as-challenging challenge for the month of February: The I'm All Thumbs Challenge. For this month I will do 28 thumbnail sketches of ideas I have for larger paintings. What is a thumbnail sketch? It is a simplified value drawing completed on an itty bitty scale. How itty bitty? Usually about an inch or two across or the size of a very large actual thumbnail. The purpose is to take the painting down to its most prominent elements of shape value, and edge to see if the composition is effective. As artists, we long to fiddle with the details before the major value structure is in. A good thumbnail sketch will show the bones of the painting and if there is enough structure to hold all to the details.
Here are the rules:
- I will create 28 thumbnail sketches in the month of February. It is already the 5th so I will have to do a few a day to catch up.
- I will post all of them. I will try to post everyday but sometimes life gets in the way.
- They will be monochromatic I want to focus on the value structure not on color. I will save color studies for another month.
- I will post them on my Facebook page. If you want to join me, you can post your thumbnails on my FB page too.
- I can try out any and all ideas that come into my head. This is my sandbox and I am playing in it.
Here are the first ones
I played catch-up today and did five thumbnails using two values of markers and the white of the paper. These are Prismacolor markers the lighter one is 30% and the darker is 50%. I worked from three photographs taken last summer. The idea was to try out some different compositions by letting the same values flow through the shapes regardless of the objects. I have also posted what a thumbnail sketch is not.
This is not a thumbnail, this is a bunch of lines representing things. This is what I often see from students when they are not comfortable with doing the small study. I always tell students " A thumbnail sketch never hurt anybody." They don't always believe me until they trust getting away from drawing "things."
Here is a page of thumbnail sketches on an 8x10 page. I am looking to make interesting shapes through values regardless of the objects. Some of these are more successful than others. Each one took about 5 minutes. Much better to find out if a composition will work at this stage and not halfway through the painting.
I felt these were the two that I liked best. The top one is of figures along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The bottom one is of a tree sticking out of a dune overlooking a river by Lake Huron.
This is easier than doing a painting a day but I have a lot to learn by distilling the composition to simple values.
2/1/2013 2:34:39 PM
Here it is all thirty paintings from the challenge in one place! What did I learn from this challenge? Many things, but mostly that painting for the pure joy of pushing pigment and learning seemed to create the strongest works. As a working artist there is always a to-do list of paperwork but the creative side must be cherished. The best way to do that is to grab a brush and go at it. Show up at the easel and the muse will show up for you.
