In getting ready for the upcoming workshop at SAM I studied Mark Tobey's Pike Place market sketches and used them as an inspiration to try a different approach to sketching. Mark Tobey worked on newsprint and used watercolor and gouache. You can see his limited palette and use of a lot of white in some of his sketches. I see a lot of pattern and rhythm to his work. He ignores perspective, but you do get a sense of depth by location of objects in relation to each other in space and size. With that in mind I made a attempt to sketch using some of those ideas. It is hard not to draw using what you know of perspective. I think you have to get beyond the mindset of realism and look for geometries, patterns get the essence and feeling and vibrancy of the place. I used brown sketch paper, ink lines, watercolor and white chalk.
Very cool to see these Tobey-esque sketches from you!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tina,
DeleteIt shakes things up a bit to look through different lenses and get out of your comfort zone.
wonderful sketches, Gail!! I really like them, especially the still like. The brown, ocher, and blue tones on the brown sketch paper, work so well together. What really makes it pop, though, is the white chalk - do you mean like ?pastel? - or ?conte?
ReplyDeleteHi Peggy,
DeleteThanks for you comments, this was like a conte crayon, Cretacolor brand.