Sketchbook_Confidential
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loose with ideas for other paintings. For sketching, I use a Sanford uni-ball fine point pen; for other sketches I use compressed and willow charcoal and Sharpies. I sketch on old letterhead paper.
Beginning a sketch starts the creative juices flowing — not knowing where it's leading, but knowing that at the end I will have something to be proud of.
When sketching ideas for a painting, I don't have to be as precise and detailed as in the finished art. It's merely a vehicle for information. Most of the drawings for my paintings are very accurate, however, to the finished art; composition, lighting, negative space, value and tone are worked out beforehand. It almost looks like the sketch was made from the painting.
In my finished sketch there is enough information as to the size of the subjects, lighting, shading and notes written that it could be possible for someone without any knowledge of the original subjects to paint the painting.
Mark Spencer
Joan Markowitz, formerly of the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, once wrote that Spencer's works “simultaneously stimulate the senses and challenge the intellect with images drawn from complex intertwinings of historical, mythological and psychological references.” Pairing traditional technique with surrealistic imagery, Spencer's dreamlike, metaphorical oil paintings and monotypes have earned him a place in numerous collections and shows, as well as a number of solo exhibitions. Spencer studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the artist's hometown.
When I'm sketching, I think about how I might improve my art. In terms of composition, I think about going places I've never been before.
Bend
Oil on gessoed paper (finished painting) 10" × 15" (25cm × 38cm)
I have a sensibility or set of feelings that need to find expression. The thumbnail sketches are my way of keeping psychically caught up with myself. My finished paintings, more often than not, look like the thumbnail sketches that inspired them.
It is my daily habit to do something on my art. Sometimes that is my sketching. Usually, when the need takes control, I take out my paper and pencil.
When I'm sketching, I think about how I might improve my art. In terms of composition, I think about going places I've never been before. I'm not aware of feeling much of anything. In fact I'm blissfully ignorant of myself.
Sketching is the most immediate connection to my inner world. In my drawings I find connections to the world that enlivens my place in it. I get psychologically caught up with where I'm at.
Does sketching shape how I see the world? I believe it's the other way around. The way I see the world shapes my art. My sketches allow me to see how I know the world through the means of visual metaphor.
There are no rules when sketching. It's how the finished painting gets its start.
Kate Starling
Starling is an oil painter who lives and works in the canyons of southern Utah. Educated in geology, she spent years working as a geologist and National Park ranger. After formal art training in the 1980s, she devoted her work to painting the landscape. Schooled in the importance of direct painting from life, she has spent years painting outside, learning the way light plays on the land. Now she splits her time between the roadways and trails surrounding her home and the studio. Starling's paintings portray the natural world and focus on communicating a sense of place, atmosphere and dazzling light, retaining the immediacy of the painting experience.
I have heard of artists who start every day with an hour of drawing. I admire their discipline, but my drawing comes at odd times and through necessity.
Aside from sketches preliminary to painting, I draw as I can catch the time. I often sketch while waiting for someone or when caught with a compelling view and no paint box. It can be a way to survive the boredom of idleness or because too much time has passed without the pleasure of making something.
