My 30-Minute “Oil Painting”

 

5/27/22 Green Lake neighborhood

No. 1

On a cool and gusty morning, I drove around the Green Lake neighborhood to make more compositional studies, but this time I was determined to do it “right”: Stay focused on the “study” aspect (thumbnails made with the purpose of guiding a final piece) and eventually make a “real” sketch with color from a study. My intention was to approach this exercise as if I were an actual Ian Roberts workshop student (except that my final piece would not be an oil painting, of course).

To give myself an additional kick, I took a cue from Sue Heston, who likes to make multiple thumbnails of the same scene cropped in different ways. She says it pushes her to think beyond a first impression, and I thought that was an excellent approach. So often I start sketching the first composition that occurs to me, but as soon as I do, I see better options.

No. 2

The first one I made (No. 1) is my typical street composition: a car, a tree and street shadows. For No. 2, I included the sunlit side of the same tree and expanded the composition to the left to include part of a house. The last one, No. 3, includes everything in the first two. For all three, I paid attention to values, the path of the eye and the overall “design.” (However, as a true urban sketcher, I didn’t add anything that wasn’t actually there – not even the bird that showed up conveniently in No. 2!)

The tightest crop and the least like a “typical” composition for me, No. 2 seemed like the best choice for a larger, more finished sketch in color (top of page). Initially, I was going to use “reality” colors, but strangely, it felt like less thinking would be required if I used my favorite primary triad instead. (Using a primary triad used to be a challenge! Now it’s more comfortable than reality colors!? Whaaaat?? When did that happen?!) Even with the primary triad, I had enough color challenges to work out that the final sketch still felt fun and fresh – not just a re-do of one of the thumbnails.

No. 3

As you can see, I resisted straying from the thumbnail. In fact, I referred to the thumbnail several times to check the values! Score! As you can also see from the photo below, I had plenty of space available on the sketchbook page, but I still stuck with the thumbnail. It made me realize that I often keep on drawing just because I have space, but the added stuff may not improve the composition (and usually doesn’t).

There – I think I finally followed all the rules! Not bad for a 30-minute “oil painting,” which I’m very pleased with. Someone, please tell Ian to give me an “A.”

I resisted the temptation to add more stuff just because
space is available on the page.