Sketchbook_Confidential

or other subject matter.

Because it is low risk, sketching is perhaps more honest and is often more creative.

As an illustrator, I often do quick sketches as a way to explore various compositions for more finished illustrations. My sketches are often the seeds or seed beds for more ambitious creative works. Unless I'm just doodling or practicing, I try to think about the visual problem I'm trying to solve. I often like to draw on toned paper, which is a quick way to establish a full value drawing.

Sketching is usually a quick way to explore a variety of subjects including motion, perspective, construction, proportion, composition, value, etc. One consequence of drawing quickly is the need to edit and simplify, which usually makes a visual idea more powerful.

Sketching tends to be more spontaneous and energetic and of much lower risk than a complete painting. Because it is low risk, sketching is perhaps more honest and is often

more creative.

Dan Beck

After high school graduation, Beck took to the road and began a string of jobs ranging from a ranch hand in Arizona to a soldier on a two-year tour in Germany. For his own pleasure, Beck carried his cherished sketchbooks and journals wherever he went, which ultimately led him to pursue art as a career. Now settled in Colorado and “firmly rooted” in the tradition of Impressionism, Beck paints figures, still life and landscapes in oils and pastels. He has earned six consecutive Oil Painters of America awards of excellence (three national, three regional).

Sketching is a way to think visually. I sketch on a regular basis to work out compositional ideas, to stay in tune with the drawing aspect of painting and to just connect with my subject in a no-pressure situation. There is a freedom about sketching that keeps me grounded, and it's just plain fun.

With the sketch I feel an immediate dialogue back to myself. It doesn't matter much what media I use — pencil, ballpoint pen, charcoal, color pencils, pastels. I like to sketch with a variety of tools. Often, just to see marks on paper is enough to get the juice going, to feel that urge to paint.

I think sketching works because it eliminates the complexities of painting. It allows one to see the essence of the subject or the idea or even to find that idea. It's much harder to do that when dealing with color mixing, painting application, etc.

Sometimes I sketch to see that essence of what will become a finished painting. Sometimes I sketch just to doodle around. That fun aspect to sketching is very important to maintain. I think and hope that the spontaneity of sketching carries over into the

painting and that the daring and innovative qualities that come so easily in sketching translate into painting.

I think what and how I sketch is definitely an ongoing teaching aide, showing me how I see the world and life. I sketch until the image “feels” right. What feels right shows me how I see and feel.

Another aspect to sketching is that it is just good practice in regards to drawing, and drawing is the most important skill in holding a painting together.