When I think of Virginia Hein’s work, two things come to mind: light
and composition. She is a master of
both, and when I heard she had a new book on landscape sketching, I was
thrilled to be able to learn her techniques.
5-Minute
Sketching – Landscapes: Super-Quick Techniques for Amazing Drawings is
the latest in Firefly Books’ series on drawing from life that focuses on speed.
(Other books in the series that I’ve enjoyed are on architecture, people, and
animals, by Liz Steel, Pete Scully, and Gary Geraths, respectively.)
Although the term “urban sketching” appears nowhere in
the description, all of the principles and techniques covered by Virginia’s book
could apply to any type of on-location landscape sketching – urban or rural,
desert or tropical, land or sea. Almost all of the sketch example contributors are
familiar to me from the Urban Sketchers community, including Shari Blaukopf,
Laura Frankstone, Don Low, Shiho Nakaza, Melanie Reim and Pat Southern-Pearce,
to name just a few. And of course, Virginia herself, a Los Angeles resident, Urban
Sketchers symposium instructor and USk correspondent, contributes many of her
own urban and other landscape sketches to the book.
Divided into four main sections, the book begins with an
overview of composition, perspective and observation in See the Big Picture. I
was particularly interested in topics on seeing large shapes, emphasizing the
light, and learning to simplify a complex scene by identifying a strong focal
point – all strategies that I see Virginia employing so well in her work.
Drilling down further, the second chapter covers specific
strategies and techniques for sketching on location, including an exploration
of various tools, materials and support formats. Because I know Virginia works
frequently in watercolor, I expected the book to have a heavy emphasis on that
medium, but I was happily surprised to find that it takes much more of a mixed
media approach. For quick sketches, she advises working on a small scale, not
only because small sketches are faster, but also because it encourages more
exploration and playing without the fear of wasting materials.
Chapter 3 focuses on specific elements we encounter in most
landscapes such as trees, sky, water and foliage. In this section, I especially
appreciate Virginia’s emphasis on observing these elements closely so that they
never appear generic. For example, many trees in a particular terrain may look
similar, but drawing them requires seeing each tree as a unique individual and
capturing its personality. At the same time, she gives ideas on how to see and
evoke large masses of foliage so that we don’t attempt to draw each leaf. Finding
this balance between the specific and the general is a key to sketching a
landscape quickly and yet accurately capturing its essence.
The last section, Take it Further, offers fun and
creative ideas for using improvised materials (coffee, anyone?) and unconventional
formats and breaking out of habitual ruts. As an intrepid urban sketcher,
Virginia encourages telling stories by creating montages of small sketches,
developing a sequence, or simply writing notes directly on the sketchbook page.
She urges spontaneity and being open to whatever the moment offers. For
example, if birds or a blimp appear suddenly in the sky, put them
into the sketch!
Overall, I highly recommend this delightful resource of ideas and tips for almost any kind of on-location
sketching from one of my favorite artists.
What I’m going to say next is not at all a criticism of
Virginia’s book, but it’s related to the whole series. While I enjoy the subject
matter and material covered in the 5-Minute
Sketching series, I’m not sure the material is always served well by the “super-quick”
approach the publisher has taken. Throughout each book in the series, the
format is consistent: Each topic gets a page of five “tips to get you started,”
and on the facing page are small sketch examples from the author and
contributors. While many topics can be covered with this approach, others might
require more explanation or more than five tips, but the author is constrained
by the rigid format. It would be nice if the format allowed showing some of the
examples at full size, for example (only the chapter introductions include
large images), instead of tiny reductions, or more than one paragraph per tip. Instead
of “5-minute sketching,” maybe the series should be called “5-minute reading,” as the books are written so
that it’s easy to grasp a single concept by reading the tips and scanning the
images next to them. But learning how to sketch
in five minutes probably takes more than a quick read.
