Storefront Plein Air Challenge

Saturday, September 2, I went out at 7:30 AM to paint the Leola Thrift Shoppe. The sky was overcast, but I wanted to complete the storefront challenge opened by James Gurney, which had officially ended two days before, and also start using my new customized outdoor easel.

I setup my watercolors and began with a careful sketch of the storefront. I used a ruler to help with straight lines and angles and to estimate perspective. When the shop manager arrived, I explained what I was up to and requested permission to continue. She was very encouraging and expressed interest in seeing the final result.

Customized outdoor easel

After correcting the sketch to a satisfying degree, I began painting quickly, mixing and adjusting colors as needed on the fly. It began to rain, so I held an umbrella in one hand after unsuccessfully clamping it to the side of the easel. Before opening time, two associates, one of whom happens to have plans to study art, arrived and came over to see my work.

After about 4 hours of drawing and painting in the rain

In the end, I quickly painted a background and roughly went over text on the sign in black ink. During the course of painting, several customers and other people walked over to see what I was up to. All of them were very positive and encouraging.

The Leola Thrift Shoppe. 6" x 8" Watercolor.

The results of the storefront challenge can be viewed here. I enjoyed this challenge and am definitely looking forward to an announcement of the next painting challenge at the Gurney Journey blog site.

Comments

How to draw - step by step process drawing a cow in pencil and ink

Longhorn cow. Pen and ink sketch. 2017 I took photos of the steps taken to draw this longhorn cow for day 4 of Inktober. We encountered this very pretty cow during one visit to Lake Tobias. The materials I used were: a cell phone photo, sketchbook, .07 mechanical pencil, kneaded eraser, Faber Castell ink pens and brush pen, and a water brush filled with a mix of reddish watercolor ink. 1) First, I drew a rectangle box to contain the shape of the body and a triangle that would contain the shape of the head. I then drew straight lines to mark off angles and body parts. Next, I began drawing lines to define the cow's form. 2) I drew lines within the straight line boxes to define the animal's form and parts. 3) After the shape of the cow and its parts were defined, I began to draw little details and mark areas where shading and color could be added later. 4) I outlined the pencil lines with ink and used a water brush filled with ...

Leopard speed painting

Here’s a video of my process painting a leopard for my nephew.

Drawing is more than seeing

Learning to draw again as an adult is a tad bit different from learning to draw as a child. There is a freedom of imagination and expression in childhood drawing that gets overshadowed sometimes by the need to control and plan in adulthood. A watercolor sketch from direct observation Some say that learning to draw is learning how to see, but that isn’t quite right. It is important to see certain aspects of form, shape, light and atmosphere in order to better observe what you want to represent realistically. But learning to draw is all about learning to control lines, shapes and edges on a surface in order to build a picture of what you see. So drawing involves much more than seeing. Drawing is a constructive and organizing activity that communicates ideas. In this way it goes beyond seeing and simple observation. It is related to speech. It organizes lines and shapes on a surface so that something new can be seen, felt or understood. A cave drawing organizes lines so that viewe...

Penn's Sketchbook

Search This Blog