Oct 28, 2007

Sketching Trees

On Friday I went out to take pictures of trees. My painting instructor suggested this since I would sometimes get stymied in my paintings when a tree just doesn't look right. I thought the trick was to go sketch trees and then return to my work-in-progress with the collected information. This is ideal but it is nice to have some photos on hand so I don't have to drop everything to go to the woods (although I do like excuses to go outside.) I had a great time photographing trees, there are so many I want to paint. I sketched for a while, too and realized that I would sketch a lot more if I didn't try so hard. Drawing is so tiresome when I try to make it "good." But I don't think drawings have to look good in order to be useful, it's about learning to see. I love the way Bonnard paints landscapes, trees especially, and I've noticed that his corresponding sketches are ridiculously loose and scribbley. If the book did not point out that they were Bonnard's I would assume a non-artist did them. I would like to be a non-artist when I sketch!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wonder why it is easier to write what Annie Lamott refers to as a "shitty first draft" than to draw quickly and loosely in a sketch book. I don't have the answer to the question but I do suffer from the same dilemma. Some of the best drawings in my household were done by my children while in elimentary school. Somehow we have to get back to that child-like naive way of seeing - censors be damned.