I brought my watercolors, and a light travel easel and I set up for a painting. I started out as I usually do, with a sketch in pencil of what I'm going to paint. Like I mentioned in the last post, in this drawing I'm trying to organize the composition as well as make notes about shading and I try to draw the architecture somewhat accurately.
After this preliminary drawing I redraw the scene following the schema from the first sketch. I tighten the drawing up where I think it should be, and in some areas I don't even bother drawing at all. For example the architecture of the Hell Gate bridge itself I did in much more detail than everything else, the trees underneath I didn't even draw in. I wanted to just paint the trees without having them be so preconceived. I think it's good to balance between following your line drawing and just letting colors mix in a little. So after a lot of catching up and chatting with my friend I finally finished my sketch.
I think it's obvious that I followed my first drawing almost exactly and I like doing that because I think the second time around I can really build the architecture better. I try to correct my perspective mistakes and small kinks before I dive into painting. Of course this was more of a long sketch, but in an actual painting I would be doing the same, except of course I'd be dedicating much more time to it.
All in all it was an excellent day, we did one more painting at the park and then headed to Fort Totten park where we ran into some rain. We both enjoyed the sun while it lasted and I'm sure this won't be the last time John joins me for some plein-air painting and drawing.
This is one of the drawings John did during our excursion, it's a portrait of me painting. It is definitely one of my favorite drawings of the day.
-R
No comments:
Post a Comment