This started off as an exercise to ‘loosen up’, a common goal for many artists (like me) that have a tendency to faithfully, indiscriminately reproduce a view exactly as it is in front of them, and rendered a little too tightly – or certainly without editing. Fair enough if the view just happens to be absolutely spot on perfect, and you’re aiming for photo-realism, but in reality, after sketching and studying most scenes, you should be able to work out what the focal point needs to be in the composition, or if a focal point needs to be created and added. Can one identify superfluous details that muddy the message, create distraction, create imbalance, or frankly – hinder the overall composition?
There are various ways one can approach this and whilst I decided in this instance to ‘sketch with a brush’, rather than a pencil, to loosen up, I also wanted to zoom in to the scene as well as zoom out, a bit like a camera lens, to see how different compositions can evolve from the one view. Obviously different variations of light and weather add interest.
These were four of the best, and being post-card size, were an economical addition to the ‘affordable art’ section of the show, along with the limited edition prints. Get in touch if you’d like something similar done of a favourite view near you, and take a few snaps if you see some interesting light effects.
