ONLINE ART COURSE – SMALL SKETCHES IN WATERCOLOUR AND INK PENS

When I saw what was to come in this project, I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy it much, because the loose sketchy style really isn’t my thing. However, I was pleasantly surprised! My hubby and I worked on the first four of the eight sketches this afternoon. Each one was designed to take a maximum of 20 minutes so we made good progress.

Warm up exercises

This first lesson in the project was most interesting. Phil, the teacher, told us that despite everything he has said to date (he said “like a broken record”!) we were not to worry about proportions or perspective as these were to be very quick sketches, the kind one would do en plein air with minimum supplies, and working fast in what might be a rapidly changing environment.

The first thing he wanted us to do was to compare every straight line in the subject with either a horizontal or vertical line, and get the angle from that, and not worry about one- or two-point perspective and get all tied up with technicalities!

In Exercise 1, he put a picture up on the screen and highlighted one straight line after another, and we had to draw it as accurately as we could, using this method.

Exercise 2 was a revelation to me. He said that since these sketches would all be of buildings in one form or another, the predominant colours would be various greys. He showed us how to produce different shades of grey from warm to cool, using just the three primary colours of red, blue and yellow, in varying proportions. I just love the subtle pastel shades that resulted from this! Some of mine came out more orange or red than grey, but with practice one will be able to judge how much of each colour one needs to add to get the desired result, and to adjust it as necessary on the hoof.

We then moved on to the project proper.

Sketch 1 – Cottage

Phil said we could work on our normal sketchbook for these sketches, or on watercolour paper if we wanted. I chose the former, as I want to keep the majority of the course work in this sketchbook.

This first sketch was the easiest as far as perspective went, because it was pretty much face-on. In all of the drawings, we were encouraged to go for a really loose, sketchy effect, beginning by drawing the shapes with a fine ink pen and then adding the colour afterwards, and finally emphasising some of the lines with a thicker pen. We were not permitted to draw in pencil first. He also told us to keep the sketches small – two to a page, but within the confines of a small rectangular pencilled frame. This would keep us up to speed and not allow us to spend too much time and getting bogged down on a larger drawing, and getting lost in too much detail.

Sketch 2 – Lighthouse

I made a bit of a boo-boo on this one, leaving out one of the sections at the top of the lighthouse, so I had to fudge it in as best as I could! That darker section near the top should be narrower than the rest.

Here are the first two sketches together on the one page.

Sketch 3 – Barn

Sketch 4 – Church

This final one was the most problematic for me. The reference photo had a really weird distorted perspective, with the verticals sloping in in an exaggerated way, and I really didn’t like this, so I decided to straighten them up! Phil was at pains for us to get those angles as close to the reference as possible but I decided to depart from the brief in this regard! He also included some extra things such as a free-standing notice in front of the door which I thought was distracting, and one or two other bits and pieces. As with most of the sketches I did, I did not include so much at the sides. Perhaps I drew my pencil rectangles a bit too narrow. Anyway, he did say he didn’t expect all our drawings to look exactly like his!

Here are sketches 3 and 4 on the one page.

These first four sketches were on a more rural theme than the four remaining ones, which will be more urban in character. This means they will be more complicated as there is going to be more detail, with numerous buildings etc. I think we can look at the first four as a warm up for the remainder!

A very interesting, and surprisingly enjoyable, project! This is not something I would ever have opted to do voluntarily, but you never know until you try. This has given me the confidence possibly to do more drawings like this. Such a very different approach from what I am comfortable with!