Homework

 

6/6/21 Through my studio window

This week we are studying scale, pattern, value and texture of plants in my Drawing Nature with Colored Pencils class. Once again, I am thrilled that we are drawing from life instead of photos, and this week’s lessons are particularly applicable to urban sketching. Unfortunately, we are having an inconvenient streak of typical June-uary weather lately – cold, windy and sometimes wet. Wishing I could go outdoors to work on assignments, I was in my studio doing some color value studies (a regular part of our weekly homework; see below) when I glanced through my rain-streaked window: Our neighbor’s crooked hedge, bush and trees were right there, conveniently waiting to be turned into homework!

“Analyze the simple, overall shapes and patterns – not details. Analyze the simple shapes of light and dark. If you can’t see it when you squint, don’t draw it!” These were the main messages of Kathleen Moore’s lesson.

It wasn’t as easy as it would be on a sunny day, but I squinted hard to see the fringe of light on top of the hedge. In her lesson demo, she emphasized pushing the darker values hard against the lighter values to bring them forward. We are also studying the varying textures we see in nature, and the cedar tree behind the hedge offered a good example (and provided the dark value behind the light). The subtle variations in greens differentiate between the hedge and the bush.

The utility pole wasn’t necessary in terms of the homework assignment, but I am, after all, an urban sketcher.

Each week we are to choose one base color and change it in value, intensity and hue in graduated steps.