A travel-sketching workshop
A good friend and I participated in a travel-sketching workshop in Waynesville this morning, sponsored by the Haywood County Arts Council.
Travel sketching sounds like a benign topic and one that interests me, as we do travel -- and I totally remember an amazing British artist traveling with us, with her birding companions, on a boat on Lake Titicaca in Peru. How did she manage those sketches, I thought?
Hmm, the gifted artist who was the teacher had only been doing art for 10 years. And her travels have taken her to France. And, she was amazingly good at details. Yikes! Perspective, light, and volume are not what I know about, but I appreciated her encouragement.
I simply tried to overcome my fear of trying to do the details and extract the essence. It was hard not to want to just dash out, with some sort of excuse, especially on the first drawing. It was so far from anything I'd try normally to draw. Way too detailed and architectural!
The second study was equally challenging. Our teacher had a range of photos to select from. I immediately tried to find something easier as a subject in my iPhone Photos gallery, but reverted to her photo of an arch view in the historic town that she had stayed in. I thought it was be "easy" -- hmm, not.
Our teacher was encouraging us all the time about how we should experiment and have fun, and do a drawing/painting every day. Well, OK. Yikes. I never would choose to try to draw anything like this. Plants, flowers, landscapes, etc. Hmm, I guess that's why classes stretch your vision.
All of us in this small workshop produced interesting and creative work. My friend and I at lunch shared how challenging it was. Thank goodness we were both there and needed to keep doing the work.... Even though quite "hard" -- I did enjoy the workshop.
Travel sketching sounds like a benign topic and one that interests me, as we do travel -- and I totally remember an amazing British artist traveling with us, with her birding companions, on a boat on Lake Titicaca in Peru. How did she manage those sketches, I thought?
Hmm, the gifted artist who was the teacher had only been doing art for 10 years. And her travels have taken her to France. And, she was amazingly good at details. Yikes! Perspective, light, and volume are not what I know about, but I appreciated her encouragement.
I simply tried to overcome my fear of trying to do the details and extract the essence. It was hard not to want to just dash out, with some sort of excuse, especially on the first drawing. It was so far from anything I'd try normally to draw. Way too detailed and architectural!
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| A historic cathedral in France |
The second study was equally challenging. Our teacher had a range of photos to select from. I immediately tried to find something easier as a subject in my iPhone Photos gallery, but reverted to her photo of an arch view in the historic town that she had stayed in. I thought it was be "easy" -- hmm, not.
Our teacher was encouraging us all the time about how we should experiment and have fun, and do a drawing/painting every day. Well, OK. Yikes. I never would choose to try to draw anything like this. Plants, flowers, landscapes, etc. Hmm, I guess that's why classes stretch your vision.
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| A view through an arch |
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| My "finished" sketch |
Wow I am impressed with your work. It is nice that you challanged yourself and had such great results.
ReplyDeleteIt was totally scary, both for me and my friend. But I'm glad I did it.
DeleteMaggie and I are going to be together at a 10-4 pastel workshop in Asheville on Saturday. That'll be interesting (and really nice to connect again in person with her).
Your sketch is beautiful, Lisa. You will see just how talented you are come Saturday!
ReplyDeleteHmm, stretching into new mediums is a good thing, I suppose. I know you're talented in many artistic media, so I'll look forward to what all of us do in Saturday's workshop.
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