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| 11/27/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook |
I’ve heard it said that the things most familiar to us are
often the most difficult to draw accurately. The brain “knows” too much about
these familiar things, preventing the eye from seeing them as they really are.
Although I replace as much cooking time as possible with sketching time (admit
it – you do, too!), so I probably spend less time cooking than most people, I’d
have to say that this room in my home is quite familiar to me, and I found it
extremely challenging to sketch.
When I saw that this week’s Urban Sketchers Flickr group theme was “Kitchens,” I groaned and
put it off for a few days. Other than fruits and vegetables I take from the
counter for still lifes, nothing in my kitchen inspires me to sketch it. Even
over breakfast today, I grumbled to Greg that the kitchen is full of hard, straight
lines, difficult perspective challenges and mostly nonexistent or uninteresting
shadows. “All the more reason to sketch it,” he replied. Tomorrow the kitchen
will be a huge mess of cooking activity, so if I was going to do something for
the theme, it would have to be today. Grumble.
The one thing our kitchen has going for it is that our
stairway runs along one wall of it, so when I stand in the stairway, I have an
unusually high vantage point that makes it slightly more interesting to sketch.
It took me well over an hour to sketch this – way longer
than I usually take for any one sketch. As familiar as the kitchen is to me,
before this morning, I’m not sure I could have told you that the burners over
our gas range have eight spider-like “legs” on them. (Sketching any object
makes me learn something about it.)
As I sat on the comfy, carpeted stairs to paint this, the
refrigerator full of food for tomorrow’s feast, the furnace circulating warm
air all around me, I realized that if the only thing I have to grumble about is
the subject of a sketch, I am, indeed, very fortunate, and I’m grateful for
everything I have.
Happy Thanksgiving!
This came out great!!! Before I read your location I was wondering if you were hanging from a ceiling fixture to get a bit of an elevated view. I'll have to dig out one of my kitchen sketches that I've done for the scavenger hunts on Wet Canvas and post it on Flickr...assuming I can find one. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!
ReplyDeleteGood sketch from a novel point of view!I have a kitchen sketch planned that I'm about to start. This is a good idea... sitting on the stairs for a different vantage point. I could do that.
ReplyDeleteI see that, like me, you're in full 'inside' mode with your sketching. Always something fun to sketch if you just look, isn't there? Thanks for sharing your kitchen.
ReplyDeleteCheers --- Larry