Sketching What I See (or what I don’t)

I haven’t been in the studio to paint for a few days. My time has been taken with putting together a book on pastel painting and living the life of an artist.

Finishing up the morning’s journaling, I drew a little sketch of the drawing I worked on last night. This is a scene I worked on last year, gave up on, and threw out. In writing about the experience for the book, the scene called to me again, and I am re-inspired.

This morning’s quick little pen sketch showed me something I hadn’t considered: The fence posts are too close to show the grasses in between!

I got out the sketch book and drawing pencils and started a new sketch. Definitely having the fence posts farther apart makes a big difference, and I’m seeing more, especially when I pulled up the photos on the computer (the photos printed on copy paper don’t show good detail or color.)

I continued sketching taking note of individual grasses. Yes, in the painting, most of that will be distance and won’t show clearly, but this close-up drawing will help with the composition of the painting.

I compared this new one to last night’s sketch and what a difference! What was I thinking putting in so many fence posts? There aren’t that many in the original photo. Sometimes I wonder about what I see, or rather, what my mind interprets. I am much happier with this new sketch.

This has also made me think: Maybe I should do the initial sketch work, not upright on the easel, but flat at the table where I can see it at a different angle.

Oh, I so want to tackle the scene on the easel, but I have editing work to do today.