Lighten Up - Street Scene
I woke up to a very dreary morning. Not a ideal morning for sketching outdoors to say the least,
On a whim I went to Google Images and did a search for street scenes. Why street scenes? I have no idea. I barely had a full cup of coffee in me so I wasn't exactly bending spoons (or forks...see How to Pass Time from my previous post) so who knows what I was thinking.
Anyway, I picked a little photo of a corner in NYC which looked like it was taken in the 50s or early 60s. I try and go into these little sketch exercises with the idea that they are to be done quickly without too much thinking and also with the intent of not to overdo it. "Lighten Up" is what I keep telling myself which is not always easy. I sketch it initially in light pencil and then go over it in pen
and then finally go in with watercolor. I purposely tried to work in a limited palette.
Leaving some white of the paper gives it some breathing room and I have to fight the urge to fill in certain objects like the lamp post shown here. I was a bit disappointed in the texture of this paper
after I scanned it. The texture shows much more than I prefer so I need to look into it and see if there is a setting I can use to alleviate it. If any of you out there have had this issue and know how to fix it, please let me know.
So, there you have it. It was fun. It was loose. And it served its purpose....an exercise to start the day
and to remind myself to lighten up, don't stress and have fun. We're painting pictures here, not disarming a bomb.
Thanks for checking in. Be safe and enjoy your day.
MW
On a whim I went to Google Images and did a search for street scenes. Why street scenes? I have no idea. I barely had a full cup of coffee in me so I wasn't exactly bending spoons (or forks...see How to Pass Time from my previous post) so who knows what I was thinking.
Anyway, I picked a little photo of a corner in NYC which looked like it was taken in the 50s or early 60s. I try and go into these little sketch exercises with the idea that they are to be done quickly without too much thinking and also with the intent of not to overdo it. "Lighten Up" is what I keep telling myself which is not always easy. I sketch it initially in light pencil and then go over it in pen
and then finally go in with watercolor. I purposely tried to work in a limited palette.
Leaving some white of the paper gives it some breathing room and I have to fight the urge to fill in certain objects like the lamp post shown here. I was a bit disappointed in the texture of this paper
after I scanned it. The texture shows much more than I prefer so I need to look into it and see if there is a setting I can use to alleviate it. If any of you out there have had this issue and know how to fix it, please let me know.
So, there you have it. It was fun. It was loose. And it served its purpose....an exercise to start the day
and to remind myself to lighten up, don't stress and have fun. We're painting pictures here, not disarming a bomb.
Thanks for checking in. Be safe and enjoy your day.
MW
Comments
Post a Comment