Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Silhouettes

 

5/2/22 Fremont Coffee Company

Although I know it’s a common practice among many urban sketchers to make line drawings on location and paint them later at their leisure, I almost never continue to work on a sketch once I leave the site. If I leave, I lose the momentum, energy and, frankly, the motivation of the moment. If I’m interrupted and can’t finish on location, I simply decide the sketch done.  

Last Monday was a rare exception. Sketchwaiting at Fremont Coffee Company, I had taken only a sip or two of coffee and had just begun a sketch of people silhouetted before a large window (below). Then the call came, ending my wait, and it was time to go. I regretted not finishing the sketch, delighted by the lovely halos of backlighting around each patron.

Initially, I was going to leave the sketch unfinished, but later at home, I realized it wouldn’t take much more to finish.

6 comments:

  1. I prefer the finished version, hands down! Kudos for finishing it !

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  2. The added tones make it so much more dramatic.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Joan! The unfinished one is really no more than a line drawing, so it definitely needed something.

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  3. Your finished version has very impactful values! Usually I find my own offsite additions to sketches have the wrong "feel"--too tight, vs the loose feeling of trying to capture a moment--but you clearly made a great choice continuing your work here.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Lee! Most of the work was already done onsite, so that helped a lot to retain the freshness.

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