 |
| 3/8/17 colored pencils, smooth Bristol (in progress) |
This week’s colored pencil class exercise is a major
departure from all the previous ones. Using a photo reference with strong value
contrasts, we are to focus firmly on the shapes and values in a limited color
range – no textures, no details, no forms – almost to the point of abstraction.
After weeks of highly detailed work that focused on form and realism, my
classmates and I were all a bit shaken and puzzled this morning – what the
heck?? And how?!
Fortunately, we had enough time to get a good start on
the assignment during class so we could ask lots of questions. (For most of the
prior exercises, we had a few minutes in class but did the bulk of the work at home. I think I would have been lost trying to start this on my own.)
With Suzanne’s prompting, however (mostly constant reminders that we should
stick to shapes and values), it started to click into place for me.
In fact, not only did it click – I started seeing this
exercise as an entry to using colored pencils for urban sketching. Though it’s
not quite done, shown here is about an hour’s worth of work. This approach is
much faster than anything we’ve done before, and with more practice, I think I
could be even faster. It takes some doing to get used to the “blurry” look –
when I look at this, I feel like I’ve forgotten to put my glasses on! – but if
I get the values right, it should still be credible and “readable.” That’s the
goal, anyway.
At my request, Suzanne promised to talk at the end of the
quarter about colored pencil techniques for sketching on location (and she concurred
with my speculation that today’s exercise is one of them). Yes! My diligence
and hard work this quarter will finally pay off – I’ll be able to apply what I’ve
learned to sketches that match my style (instead of these time-consuming
drawings from photo references which I may never attempt again once the class
is over).
 |
| reference photo |
No comments:
Post a Comment