Colorful little paintings

Little thumbnail sketches

 finished off with a couple of swipes of watercolor.

  

They are continuous line drawings done with a Uni-ball Vision pen with a fine tip.  They are each two inches square.  

Thumbnails are not only a warm-up, but a way of planning out a composition.  They should take about two minutes (without color) and contain no detail.  The first step is to just put in shapes to see how they fit, and if you're happy with the fit, put in some very simple medium and dark values.  Do one after another until you are happy with the composition.

Today I was looking over some of the objects that are on the classroom tables from this week's lessons.  I occurred to me, as I was mentally matching up some of the things, that thumbnail sketches are the equivalent of stream of consciousness writing.  I start out drawing the objects as they are, then just move along to the way they could be, until I get to the way I think they should be.

It's snowing here and the wind chill advisory for tonight is for 25 to 40 BELOW!!!!   NOOOOOO!!!! That has to be a misprint.  Please be a misprint?

Studio Still Life

Our Assignment "Where I Paint"

This is a continuous line drawing in ink with watercolor

My classes will be working on still lifes over the winter.  I think it is pretty easy to get bored with still life, so I'm trying to make it interesting by mixing things up a little.  We'll be doing contour/continuous line, value patterns,  negative shapes, crosshatching, ink, pencil,  watercolor, various view points .   .   .   . 

It is snowing like crazy right now  -  great weather to stay inside and sketch and paint.  Are you more productive in the winter, or less productive?  I always think I am going to get so much done, but I get a little lazy thinking I have all this "down time".  I get a lot lazy.