Composition Challenge Observations

6/18/22 Lake Union Park

 My 30-day composition challenge has prompted me to sketch more often from photos than I have in the whole 10 years that I’ve been sketching. Although it will never be the same as drawing from life, I have come to appreciate its value as a learning tool. However, when I start the day by sketching from a photo, I don’t feel like I’ve drawn yet until I’ve made a live sketch. I had a similar observation when I was drawing from memory and imagination during my 100-Day Project: Drawing didn’t feel “real” until I did it from observation. After more than a decade of focusing on observational drawing, maybe I have trained myself to associate “real” drawing only with drawing from life.

6/19/22 Gas Works Park (from photo)

Another thing I’ve observed from this challenge is that the compositions I am most attracted to usually juxtapose the irregular, organic shapes of trees and other plants with the hard, manufactured or built angles and lines of houses, cars and poles. That has been my sketching interest for a long time, yet I don’t think I had articulated it to myself until doing these daily studies made me more aware of it. When I look back at the composition studies I’ve made, they almost all include a contrast of soft and hard lines.

6/19/22 Maple Leaf neighborhood

6/20/22 Crown Hill neighborhood (the lower one 
was the initial study for a larger, color sketch)

6/21/22 Maple Leaf

6/21/22 Maple Leaf

6/22/22 Maple Leaf (from photo)

6/23/22 Gas Works Park

6/24/22 Fremont neighborhood