Sunday afternoon the sun was shinning warmly so I walked down to the pond to sketch. I have trampled down the grass in one spot where I sit and think. Next year I think I'll put a permanent chair down there. I have always found it hard to paint/draw landscapes especially when they are right in front of me. I get overwhelmed by so many details. This was my first drawing.
This was the second drawing. click to enlarge.Experiment from Spirit of Drawing. "Choose a small section of a natural place to explore through touching. Let this exploration lead you into drawing, leaving your eyes closed. Then allow this sense of contact to continue as you draw with eyes open. Let this drawing be a journey with no time limit, finding a pace that feels natural to you. Draw as if you are hiking in the wilderness, where every step, every turn, reveals something new." pg 96
24 comments:
Great drawings Love how you sketched the shadow in the water!
Hug >M<
Very very good en plein air drawings. :)
I read if you use a view finder. make it yourself you can edit the picture to what you want in the drawing, or painting, then your eye can do the rest. Makes it easier to draw. or just make a square with your fingers.
I find painting/photography hard in the great outdoors. I think this is because the eye/mind focuses on something, but we aren't really focusing on the visual, but the conceptual. Not the two trees, but the contrast of shadow and light. Not the park, but the way the skyline seems to rise from the mass of green trees.
Especially with photography, it just takes in everything, not the ideas in your head that organize the view.
I think these are fine drawings and I love that idea from the book.
Beautiful Drawings, Suki! Like Marianne, I love the reflection in the water!
That is a great idea for you to place a seat by the pond for next season! That will be lovely for you!
Thanks Suki!
Excellant - and you need a permanent chair for sure.
I like the progression from 1 to 2.
The second one really pulls me in...I can see the water moving here...and oh, did love discovering your feet!
Thanks Marianne. Funny I didnt even think of the shadows until the second drawing.
Thanks Cris. Good idea about the view finder. I actually have several I use for making greeting cards. Next time I'll bring it or use fingers as you suggest.
Rowena, what you say is very interesting. About the photo not taking in the ideas in the head that organize the view. Is that why photographers manipulate their photos during developing?
thanks Annie. she has a lot of interesting and different ideas, though some she credits to Niccolides the Natural Way to Draw. I know I spelt his name wrong.
KIm thanks for stopping by. Yes, something to look forward to next spring....a little wooden chair perhaps down by the pond.
Thanks difference.
Lynn, there is a painted named Bonnard who paints in such a way that your eye is drawn say to the trees and only later do you see a child's head (or whatever) somewhere else in the painting. There is a sense of discovery when looking at his pictures. They are very subtle. I'm not saying mine is subtle but I delighted in reading your comment.
i think you mentioned this bench before, so do it, put one there.like whatever you draw.
Nice drawings with a "feel" for nature. When I read the quote from Spirit of Drawing, I first read "Draw as if you are HIDING in the wilderness." Suki, I believe your drawings influenced my reading, which is actually a rather sneaky improvement on the original. ;-0
Wonderful sketches!! Find an old chair and paint it to make it really your own.
i love how you are choosing so many different ways to challenge yourself with these daily drawings. very inspiring.
nice drawings and exercise, suki! i had a student one time who could absolutely not paint outdoors. she was a wonderful artist and painter but the landscape was too overwhelming and overstimulating for her. me, i just pick what i think of as the essence--a color, a repetition of shape or line, a contrast of texture--and i go from there. it's almost as if i abstract it in my mind before i put a single detail on the paper in front of me. and sometimes, just sitting outside with my paints is enough to make me happy....you, too?
Really interesting,,these daily drawings!
I SO loved it when I discovered your shoes,,,unexpected little surprises are always cool!
I agree, a chair painted just for you would be an awesome thing to have there, go for it!
Suki, So nice to see the pond rendered by you...new life with shadows and details felt as well as seen. Your book is a true companion. I've been looking at Art From Intuition by Nimmer as a new play book for fall and for music...Nina Simone. What is your favorite music lately?
I have been away attending to life and all its glorious nuances (nice way to say working hard but loving every minute of it). I step into your studio and see you have been oh so busy. Delightful. Mind if I quietly browse?
p.s.
Love all the autumn pics, especially the header pic. GORGEOUS!
soulbrush, no doubt I mentioned it before all the grass and baby trees and shrubs grew up around the pond edge making it impenetrable. If i am here next year I will make a point to have my bro cut the stuff down.
San, I like that--hiding in the wilderness. I think Siegel would like it too. She talks of a student who, on a sketching outing, spent the day skteching in a hollowed out redwood tree.
teri, thats a really good idea. Bright and colorful and fun.
M. Heart, yes, these different experiments somehow help with finding things to draw or ways to approach drawing.
Mary, thanks for your wonderful comment which I will read again and again. Actually, I rarely paint outside, this was not the first time but pretty close.
Thanks Babs. Glad the shoes were a surprise to you too. I picture an old wooden slatted lawnchair low to the ground. Now to find one.
Mary Ann, what a coincidence. When I bought Spirit of Drawing I also bought Art from Intuition by Nimmer, both on Kim's recommendation (creating space). I have had them for awhile but hadn't used either one until just this month for Spirit. Maybe next month I'll go to the Nimmer. Mostly I've been listening to Chakra Chants and books on tape. I must move on to some music as it might affect my painting.
Debbie, nice to hear from you again. sometimes Life work takes over doesnt it? Except for these drawings i havent been doing much work, no new work, just puttering with older work that is unfinished trying to finish it.
I think I like the first one best. You focused on what matters and filtered out the rest. Have you ever looked at Cathy Johnson's work? Her blog is www.katequicksilvr.livejournal.com She's a professional sketch artist for the Sierra Club, among others. Check it out.
Suki, I think you really captured the quiet mood and beauty of the water in your drawings. I hope you can get a chair or bench down there in that special place, I would love to see more drawings of this lovely place!
oh i feel a kind of movement...as if a breez is blowing there...
love'em... full of energy...
Suki, I love the reflection of the light in the water, the way you made this "seeable", lovely sketches and the quote from the book sounds very inviting, just to do so
have a wonderful day
Andrea
Thanks for the link Katie Jane. And for the comments on the drawings.
Lynette, thanks for the encouragement to doing more pond area drawings. Maybe by sitting quietly down there I'll get to see the turtle.
human being, thanks for stopping by. Yes, the breeze is blowing all the leaves off the trees and soon they will be bare.
Andrea,I am quite taken with the book although when I first got it I wasnt drawn (heh heh) in. Now that I'm drawing every day it has more interest.
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