July 2016 Sketches

Those Roofs Again
19 July 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
20.3cm x 14.0cm (8.0" x 5.5")

In July I completed lessons 9 and 10 and started lesson 11 of Liz Steel’s online sketching class - SketchingNow.

• Lesson 9 is about composition. It uses a viewfinder to help frame the sketch and to place the focus (point of greatest interest) according to the rule of thirds
• Lesson 10 is about strengthening the focus and drawing the viewer’s eye to it
• Lesson 11 is about starting a sketch by drawing the most important object (the focus) and treating the rest of the scene as context or background.

Corridor
6 July 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

I’ve enjoyed the exercises, but found lessons 9 and 10 quite challenging.

Elaine’s Side
14 July 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
20.3cm x 14.0cm (8.0" x 5.5")

The viewfinder was great for defining the boundary of a sketch and the relative sizes of things, but I found it difficult to use. The big problem is keeping it in one place. I developed a strategy of using the viewfinder at the start of the sketch to compose the view and to position the major lines and shapes, but to stop using it once they were in place..

Art Books
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

Lesson 10 was predominantly about using thumbnail sketches to explore potential compositions. The sketch of the cottage roofs at the top of the post and the sketch of Stokes Mill are from lesson 10.

My intention was to make the windmill look like a monolith. My first inclination was to draw it in landscape, but exploring the subject with thumbnails suggested that portrait was a better format.

Stokes’ Mill
21 July 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

Lesson 11 was a complete change of direction from the more analytical thinking in lessons 9 and 10. The approach in lesson 11 is to pick the thing you are most interested in, draw it and then see how the mood takes you.

Essential Kitchen Gadgets
26 July 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
20.3cm x 14.0cm (8.0" x 5.5")

I started by drawing the approximate size and shape of the toaster and some perspective lines for the edges of worktop in a warm watercolour pencil and then I went for it in ink.