The Seduction of Color

7/2/20 Maple Leaf neighborhood

A couple of weeks ago, Virginia Hein gave a USk Talk with the challenge to put strong splashes of color on the page first, then draw over it, allowing the color to provide an emotional element to the sketch. Splashing watercolors sounded like fun, and I hoped that the challenge would push me out of my usual comfort zone of starting with a pristine page, so I jumped right in. Indeed, the splashing part was fun. I prepped several pages in a small Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook to take out with me on walks later.

The sketches shown here are the results. The first sketch (above) was made on a dreary, overcast day that suddenly cracked open with sunshine briefly. I thought the mix of pale but clear hues helped to convey that moment of light.

7/6/20 Maple Leaf neighborhood

The other two were made on a sunny day, but I think I chose the wrong color-splashed pages for both. The red, which I thought might be cheery behind the street scene (at left), looks dark and moody after I drew the scene. The motorcycle is just a mess. Nothing about the color enhances the drawing, and in fact, detracts from it. Perhaps I was too random in splashing colors, and the abstract quality clashes strongly with my realistic style. Several followers on social media told me how much they liked these sketches, applauding the vivid colors, but I don’t like them.

I am ambivalent about color. Obviously, my obsession with using and collecting colored pencils indicates that on some emotional level, I am strongly driven by color. I love seeing it, using it, surrounding myself with it. I love it! And yet back when I first started sketching and used watercolors as my primary color medium, I ruined many not-too-bad drawings by adding color. Frankly, I’ve seen it happen to other sketchers, too: Nicely composed and rendered drawings became mediocre after flat, wimpy colors were applied. So the emotional impulse to use color does not necessarily lead to the emotional enhancement of sketches.

7/6/20

What is, in fact, the purpose of color? So many of my best drawings (and by “best,” I mean closely observed and rendered as carefully as possible) are monochrome. Sometimes my full-color sketches work well too, and I can see that color clearly enhanced the drawings in some way. But sometimes I look at a finished color sketch and think, “Huh. That would have been better as a black-and-white value study.”

 The seduction of color: Undeniably powerful and irresistible. But if it could detract from a drawing instead of enhancing it, maybe I need to resist. The challenge, of course, is knowing whether color is an essential part of the visual story I want to tell with a sketch – or whether it’s just the usual seduction.

Shade Trees

7/8/20 Roosevelt neighborhood

The temperature was 72 and sunny. With an errand to run, I took the top down on the Miata for what seemed like the first time in years. Taking the long way through neighborhoods on my way to the pharmacy, I pulled off near Ravenna Boulevard on a street where huge trees offered handy shade. I took longer than I needed to finish this sketch, just to prolong the joy.

The New Normal

My risk for COVID-19 is no higher than it is for others “of a certain age,” nor is it for Greg. I’ve been so cautious and vigilant since March, perhaps overly so, that I started to wonder if I needed to loosen up. I wouldn’t do anything reckless or foolish to endanger myself or others, but maybe my caution was verging on neurosis. Many Facebook friends seemed to be going about their masked lives with some semblance of normalcy, and I found myself thinking, “I want to feel normal, too.”

Sunny and 72 degrees, it was a gorgeous afternoon – the kind we wait all year for. I had a prescription to pick up, and a favorite Starbucks is right next door to the pharmacy. With umbrella’d tables on a sunny, quiet patio, it has been the location of many sketches made on early summer days, celebrating al fresco weather.

All the way there, I tried to imagine what my new normal would look like: I’d heard that the Starbucks mobile pickup option was nearly contact-free – just order and pay with the app, then walk in when the drink was ready – so I wasn’t too concerned about that part. I was thinking more about the al fresco sketching part. After getting my drink, I could find a table and perch on a chair (sitting not too deeply, and certainly not touching the arms). The table, too, was to be avoided, except to hold my beverage. Oh, the cup – wouldn’t the barista have to hand it to me? So that means I’d have to sanitize my hands first before reaching into my bag for my sketch gear. And if I drank from the cup, I’d have to resanitize again before continuing my sketch (much easier than sanitizing my sketchbook and every pencil, not to mention my entire bag). Should I leave my mask on, in case people passed by too closely on the patio? But then how would I sip?

When I arrived, the patio was void of tables. Hallelujah, I wouldn’t be able to sketch after all! Inside, the barista handed me my beverage cup placed inside a large ceramic mug, which he held by its handle, so he didn’t have to touch my cup at all (at least as far as I could see). Of course, I had to open the door, so I sanitized my hands afterwards anyway.

Driving home happily with the top down, I relished my ability to be normal again.

The new normal.

Alstroemeria

7/5/20 alstroemeria in our backyard

I’m not much of a nature journaler or even a garden sketcher. Perhaps if I had a nicer garden, I would be both, but that would require, you know – gardening. My idea of nature journaling and garden sketching is this: Sitting in 68-degree shade to sketch the alstroemeria in our backyard (incorrectly identified as freesia in my sketchbook). Ahhh . . . summer at last! Two more months of this, please!

Technical notes: I mentioned in my review of the Stillman& Birn square-format sketchbook that it’s too large for easy carrying or use while standing, so I can’t take it urban sketching. For this alstroemeria page, though, it was ideal. I had dragged a kitchen chair out there, so I could easily support the book on my lap. The square format gave me just enough additional page real estate for a montage like this.

I typically wouldn’t use traditional (wax-based) colored pencils on location because watercolor pencils are more efficient for the way I like to sketch. This beautiful, leisurely Sunday afternoon, however, was an ideal opportunity to haul my Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils outside along with a good crank sharpener (which is essential with such soft cores as these).

Ahhh.... summer at last!

Speaking of Luminance pencils, I just heard that Cd’A has released 24 new colors in the Luminance line. As I picked out colors for the freesia leaves, I noted significant holes among the greens in the original line. I’d welcome a few more greens, and more yellows wouldn’t hurt, either. The strange part is that 20 of the 24 new colors are being issued as a new “portrait” assortment, which doesn’t make much sense if you look at the included hues. The remaining four new colors are available open stock, which also doesn’t make sense. Why not just put all 24 in a new set? I’ll wait until they are all available open stock in the US and just buy the colors I want.

I’ll tell you what really excites me about this news: Maybe it means that Caran d’Ache will soon be adding some new colors to the Museum Aquarelle line! It has some serious gaps, too. Though my excitement is based purely on conjecture, keep your fingers crossed for me.

Disheveled

6/30/20 male goldfinch

A bright yellow male goldfinch was at our feeder, but I could see that something was wrong. Injured or sick, he rested there for long periods without eating and seemed to have difficulty perching. The black chevron pattern that should have shown on his wings looked disheveled. Taking a seed or two now and then, he returned daily for a few days. Then returned no more.

Blue Spruce

7/3/20 Seattle Lamp First Presbyterian Church,
Northgate neighborhood

Whenever I drive home from the Northgate post office, I pass the Seattle Lamp First Presbyterian Church. It’s hard to miss its prominent red cross, but equally eye-catching is the huge blue spruce in front of it.

One overcast day, the ideal parking spot was open, so I jumped at the chance. My spritzer got away from me a bit, so the church front looks a little dirty, but I’m happy to have finally captured the spruce.

Urban Rhythm

7/3/20 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Occasionally I am asked why I include unsightly utility poles and wires when it would be so easy to omit them from otherwise “pretty” sketches. My first thought is that, as an urban sketcher, I want to be “truthful to the scenes I witness,” and a street scene in Seattle without poles and wires would be suspect.

The larger reason, however, is that they lend a compelling rhythm, pattern and texture to a composition. Sometimes they are the composition.