Sunday, February 17, 2013

Rough sketches

 When I say that I start with a rough sketch at the beginning of a new project, I do mean rough!  As you can see, there is nothing pretty about these drawings. 

Believe it or not, this is a landscape scene consisting of cottonwood trees along a creek in winter.  Both of these drawings are 3 or 4 inches in size.  I am trying to find the best  composition, working on different tree placements and tree silhouettes as well as auditioning different shapes of the piece.  Should it be a horizontal or a vertical shape?

So far I am leaning towards the verticle orientation.  That size gives me a lot more space in which to meander my creek and put in more distance and perspective, items that I believe will make a much more interesting piece in the end.

But I will keep scribbling and auditioning different compositions and final shapes.  For me, this is an important step with important decisions to be made and you never know what you may come up with by taking the time to try different ideas. 

3 comments:

  1. Preliminary sketches are growing in importance to me. I'm trying to learn to slow down at that stage and try more ideas. I used to jump into the fabric too fast then try to solve problems that arose. This is one of the reasons I like your blog - it's encouraging to see the process steps of others. Thanks for posting.

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  2. It is great to see your sketches. Like Sande stated, you have inspired me to slow down and give more thought to composition. Just because an intricate piece is created in cloth doesn't mean that one should overlook that aspect. Tough decision, but I do like the vertical sketch. I can see you working magic with either orientation though. Have fun! Thanks for sharing.

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