What’s in a Sketch?

What’s in a Sketch?

While traveling it’s not always practical to bring my entire oil painting gear and sometimes it’s more fun to just stalk a place, exploring its nooks and crannies. For me this is most fun with my watercolors and it all fits into a small bag.

 

Sketching in my opinion is essential to the artist’s health. It is the place for play and exploration and where there is no idea of making something finished or for anyone else, for our eyes only that we choose to share (or not).

I’ve really been on the road over the past few months and especially while teaching I can always sneak in a 10 minute watercolor. It really only takes 10 minutes to sit down and make a sketch. The important to thing is to keep my hand and mind engaged, seeing the world through light, shadows, shapes and colors.

 

 

I just wanted to share a few sketches, mostly watercolors, a medium I’m growing to love more and more and find so fun and freeing. Watercolor for me is the challenge to reduce something down to its essence- less is often more. The way to think about watercolor is to think about the big shapes and values and challenge myself to see how much white of the page I can leave, giving a sense of light and depth to an image and let it be beautifully imperfect.

 

 

Letting the drawing be imperfect and not controlling the flowing water and paint at every turn is fun and exciting and is your unique expression, like a fingerprint. Letting the quirks stay there forever on the page is a dare- will you let them be?

 

For so many years I have been too critical of myself and my drawing skills, not wanting to always let the world see these imperfections. Instead watercolor sketching has taught me to relax. Have fun! Enjoy the moment and while you have a general plan and idea when you set out to make a watercolor sketch, it doesn’t always go as planned and you just respond to the painting in the moment. This is the joy of creating and of being an artist. Playing is what artists do. Remember that and remember to sketch!