Keep Sketching!

I admit that I don't sketch as often as I think it would do me good.

I tell all my students to do it to sharpen their perception of visual shapes and compositions.

I was going through my sketch books yesterday and found this one.

My excuse for not sketching more is that I draw a lot in the studio warming up to do new paintings.

I'm hoping that counts!

But one can always be better at noticing things and then doing a fine job of rendering them.

I show sketches to my students that have been made by the masters. Cezanne is one of them.

His sketches are scribbly and messy.

But look where they led him....to his masterpieces.

Distance from work surface

I have noticed that students can be back too far from

their drawing or painting surface. Then your arm tires

quickly and that is not good if you want to be working

for an hour or two. This distance in the photo shows

the art bent, not straight out. This is good!

Also, be sure your work surface is perpendicular to

your line of vision. If you have it slanted back away

from you too much, you will not draw things in

proportion.