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study – MARSH DRAMA © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Prismacolour pencils, 5 x 7

 

Well, this is it. November 30. Blog post # 30. Quick Study # 30. I've reached my goal of posting a study every day, and finding something else to write about as well. Now that the end of this month and the end of this project has arrived, I'm not so sure I'm glad about it. I've become quite fond of the daily routine of finding a little something to write about, while I share a bit of insight into what makes me tick, what excites me enough to want to make a painting about it.

 

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, this image is the second one I selected from that quick unplanned photo sprint out onto the marsh last month. I said I'd saved the best of the two for last, and I think you'll agree. This is it. I wanted this series, this project, to 'go out with a bang', or at the very least, a bit of drama. And this is sky-drama at its best.

 

Yesterday's study was done from the eastern view out on the marsh that day, this one shows the view looking toward the west, where the sun was sinking but hadn't yet reached the angle where the red light starts to seep through. The darkening clouds which obscured the sun were literally glowing, and it was truly a breathtaking sight to behold. It cried out “paint me!”

   

                    My photo                                   after 5 minutes                           after 1 hour

 

I did take a few liberties with the composition, and played with the colour a bit too. Since I was looking directly toward the sun, everything in the foreground and background appeared in silhouette, even though there was still lots of light. The effect is an optical illusion of sorts, due to the brightness of the light in the sky. Even though a quick study such as this cannot fully do it justice, it's a starting point. This is another study I will very likely rework as a complete painting, perhaps with the Prismacolour pencils, perhaps with Oil paints. That remains to be seen.

 

What I do know for sure is that the feeling I get when I encounter a scene such as this is very addictive. It's a 'high', so to speak, and is only superceded by the next 'high' that occurs when I have captured the image in pigment. It is the constant search for the next 'fix' which spurs me on to keep creating more and more paintings. When I see something like this it just tugs at some deep part of me and will not be ignored.

 

That is a lesson I've learned over many years of trying to ignore it, while trying my best to focus on other things, other more lucrative endeavours, other more active ways to live my life. It's a drive which I was born with, it's always been there, and refuses to go away, even after six and a half decades. It will accompany me to my grave. And now at this stage of my life I have given myself over to its influence, heart and soul, hook line and sinker. I'm at peace with who I am, what I am.

 

As addictions go, this is a good one to have.

 

So now, what's next ? Good question. Whatever it is, you can be sure I'll be blogging about it at some point. See you then.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

study – MARSH RIPPLES © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Prismacolour pencils, 5 x 7

 

This study is based on one of the newer images in my collection. I was sitting at my work-station one afternoon, deeply engrossed in the study I was working on (study # 26, probably). I had been feeling like I'd nearly exhausted all the 'best' images in my photo collection, and had been wondering (subconsciously at least) how I was going to add a little interest to the 'plainer' ones which remained.

 

I'd been working on this series of studies in groups of 4, though I'd 'mapped out' all 30 images at the beginning, and I was partway through the final quartet of images I'd prepared and printed out to use as reference. After that there would be just the final 2 images to prepare and print out as reference material for the final 2 images in the series.

 

But I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about starting those final two, I felt I had 'scraped the bottom of the barrel' to find 2 more, when I'd already used up the more interesting images in my collection. I didn't want the series to just 'fizzle out', as far as interesting subject matter went. I'd prefer it to 'go out with a bang'.

 

So there I sat, in this half-trance state of artistic endeavour, my left mind mulling over the issue of 'what's left?', which freed up my right mind to work on the task at hand. After a particularly vigourous session of blending colours together, which marked the end of the time allotted for the study, I sat back to shake out my cramped hand. As I did so, I casually glanced out the window to my left, and what I saw took my breath away. Literally.

 

I leaped up from my seat (as well as my over-60-yr-old body will allow me to leap), grabbed my camera from the desk, scooped up my purse and keys, and headed out the door. A short drive later I was out on the Tantramar Marsh, where I knew I would have the best vantage point for grabbing a few more sky pics. It was another of those 'AHA' moments I've mentioned previously. I drove back home with a huge smile and a feeling of smug satisfaction - I knew I had just captured exactly what I needed to complete the series.

 

Here's the first of the 2 which I selected from that impromptu photo-shoot.

   

                My photo                         after 5 minutes                       after 1 hour

 

This shot was taken looking toward the east, out on the Highmarsh Rd. The road seems to disappear into the distance, since the ground is so flat. You can literally see for miles and miles in all directions.

 

I did make a few compositional decisions in this study, such as modifying the angle of the road itself, and minimizing the foreground strip along the bottom. The background line of trees was varied a bit as well, and the hydro tower was completely ignored. The sky shapes too were adjusted a bit, to increase drama and tension.

 

Again you can see how the colours in the photo are not 'true' - they're generally darker and 'bluer' than they are in real life, and I compensated for that as well, employing a few tricks of colour perspective to push the horizon back, visually.

 

Tomorrow will be the final study in this series. Come back and check it out - you'll see the second shot I captured on that hurried outing, and I think you'll agree I've saved the best of the two for last.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

 

 

 

study – WESTERN LIGHT © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Prismacolour pencils, 5 x 7

 

When I look out my kitchen window on a late fall afternoon, or when I'm sitting out on my back deck, there is a time of day when the trees in the western portion of my view seem to 'come alive' with light from the sinking sun, when they sometimes appear to glow with a last-ditch effort to hold onto the light for just a little longer. It's a short-lived transition period when it does happen, and it might only take another moment or two until they revert to a 'flatter' tone as the light begins to fade.

 

I have tried to capture that moment in this study, which is a slight departure from the usual 'total sky focus'. I started out with all good intentions of diminishing the treeline in favour of the sky, but somewhere between 'planning' and 'doing', this happened.

 

I think one reason for this variance might be the simple fact that I've become much quicker with these studies as they progressed, and I had more time to work on tree details once the sky was completed to my satisfaction. So in that sense I guess it was just a matter of time until this occurred. You could say it was a 'mutation waiting to happen'.

 

The focus in this one is on the light, which is a result of the sky, so it's still a 'sky study' in that respect. It still 'fits' with the others.

 

   

                My photo                       after 5 minutes                          after 1 hour

 

It's all about making choices as I work, I've come to realize. Yesterday I spoke of how art and life are both a series of choices. Each choice we make is rooted in previous choices we've made, or failed to make.

 

Once a choice is made it doesn't have to be written in stone. In life I've learned to 'roll with the flow', to adapt and adjust to whatever comes next. Sometimes it means re-thinking a decision I've made (ie: a 'choice' I've made), sometimes it means following up with the next logical decision (ie: choice) in order to continue in a forward direction.

 

In art the same principle applies ... choices can be flexible, they can adapt to whatever we discover 'next', they can be adapted to cope with the new circumstances of the moment, whatever that may be. As humans we have evolved to adapt, to change our direction based on what life throws our way, whatever that may be. And that is also how we are able to grow and progress as artists.

 

Two more days remain in this month, so join me tomorrow for the 'second-last' study in this series.

 

Cheers

Sharon

study - COTTON CANDY SKY © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Prismacolour pencils, 5 x 7

 

Art, like life, is all about the choices we make. It's a series of choices, each one based in part on previous choices we have made before. I chose to take the photo in the first place - I could have just looked upward and admired what I saw and then just let it go, but my choice was instead was to pick up the camera and snap this image.

 

I made a choice to pursue this series of 30 sky studies. I chose to start them all with a basic draft using cotton balls to apply pigment scraped from coloured pencils, I chose to refine them using the pencils directly, and I chose to spend no more than 1 hour on each study.

 

Then, after all these choices had been made and acted upon, and I had my collection of 30 1-hour studies in hand, I chose to post them here, one at a time, for a total of 30 days. That was the challenge I set for myself, or rather which I 'chose' for myself, and that has necessitated a daily choice of what to write about.

 

That necessity came from a choice to make this blog more than just a series of pictures. And speaking of pictures, here's the lowdown on today's study ...

   

            my photo                     after 5 minutes                   after 1 hour

 

The cropping bug was obviously active again in this study, eliminating a good part of the treeline and tightening up the arrangement of fluffy pink & purple clouds in the late afternoon sky. After the 5-minute draft using cotton balls and scraped pigment, I spent the next 55 minutes building up the colour layers and refining as much detail as possible in that short amount of time.

 

This one was really fun to do - the clouds just look so cheerful and happy, like tufts of cotton candy floating along in the breeze. Happy colours, happy mood, happy little study. Reminds me of a painting instructor who used to have a programme on TV - you all probably know who I mean so there's no need to name names  -  he talked about 'happy little' this, and 'happy little' that, and 'happy little' accidents ... that was sort of the mood I was in when I did this study.

 

We'll see what sort of mood tomorrow's entry brings ...

 

cheers

Sharon

 

 

study - MORNING PINK © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Prismacolour, 5 x 7

 

Summers when I was growing up were spent at my family's beach, located near the cape where the bridge now crosses the Northumberland Strait from NB to PEI. We kids would be up and out the door at the crack of dawn most days, and would stay out until our grumbling tummies reminded us it was time for lunch, or supper, or the darkening sky told us that night was approaching. It was a wonderful way to grow up, and I have very fond memories of those days, and of that place. I still spend some time down there each summer, and my attachment to the salty breeze off the water has not diminished with age.

 

It's a place where the sun rises over the water, and morning sky colours can sometimes rival those of sunsets, which happen on the other side of the sky, at the other end of the day. This study is an attempt to capture some of that delicate yet dramatic colouration, with the early-morning pinks reflecting on the water and casting a warm glow over everything.

   

                    My photo                                   after 5 minutes                                   after 1 hour

 

This photo was originally taken with the intent to record the crossed-ripples effect on the water, with what appears to be pink waves moving in one direction and blue waves moving at cross angles. But the glowing sky is equally interesting, and that is the focus of this study. I've altered the cloud formations and land mass somewhat, to tie the composition to the shape of the format, and there is only a small bit of water showing - just enough to give it scale and grounding.

 

The initial draft using cotton balls was accomplished in just 5 minutes this time, which marks another step in the progression of this series. This is the point where 5 minutes : 55 minutes became the time-split for the remainder of the studies.

 

Tomorrow I'll be back with study # 27 ...

 

cheers

Sharon

 

 

study - COOL SEPTEMBER © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Prismacolour, 5 x 7

 

Another glimpse of September sky colour, this time on a cool day. The upper portion of the sky in this study shows the cool air settling in, as we move into the latter part of the afternoon. You've probably noticed by now that there hasn't been any particular 'order' to this series of sky studies, it was mostly based on which images caught my eye first, and which one 'next' ... that was how I first assembled the list of studies to do. Then I just worked through from # 1 to # 30, in the order in which they'd been selected.

 

Obviously, the most dramatic skies were early picks, which left a fair number of more 'ordinary' skies to round out the set. And so my challenge became, in the latter stages of this project, to attempt to turn the ordinary into something worthy of notice. In short, 'creating drama where there is none'.

 

How do we create drama or interest in an 'ordinary' scene? We can punch up the colours, add extra colour notes, increase contrasts, exaggerate details, invent extra compositional elements, or perhaps all of the above. That's what I've been doing for the past few studies, and for this one as well.

 

   

              My photo                                  after 10 minutes                                  after 1 hour

 

In this study, #25, you can see where the cloud shapes and colour tones have been exaggerated a bit, to liven up the movement in the composition. The treeline has been simplified, in much the same way as I've done in other studies in this series, in order for the main area of focus to remain the sky itself.

 

With the experience built up from the previous studies in this series, I'm able to develop the work to a higher degree of finish in the same limited amount of time, which adds to my personal satisfaction with these pieces. And 'personal satisfaction' is where it's at :)

 

Join me tomorrow for study # 26 ... gradually winding down to the end of this series, the end of this month, the end of this project ...

 

cheers

Sharon

study - SEPTEMBER STREAKS © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Prismacolour ... 5 x 7

 

Another rather 'tame' sky, notable only for its calm demeanour. The cloud formation that day was arranged in layers, which gave a rather streaky impression, as if huge sticks of chalk pastel had been scraped across the wide expanse of sky, with some of the colours overlapping, some mixing together, and all softly blended with a final application of white and fingertips. That was the impression I was aiming for in this piece, just a study of softness.

 

Of course the title could have a more literal meaning as well - September streaks by in the blink of an eye. One day we're mourning the end of August, the next day (or so it seems) we're entering October. The question becomes “where did September go??!!” I tend to feel that way every year, it's a month which passes in the blink of an eye. September is that 'in-between' month in many ways, no longer really 'summer', but not yet really 'autumn' either. Perhaps that's why it seems 'invisible' - it's a transition.

 

Here's the progression of this study, a transition in its own right - from reference photo, to cotton-ball colour draft, to completed 1-hour quick study.

     

           My photo                     after 10 minutes               after 1 hour

 

As usual, I've cropped the original image, simplified the composition, and corrected the colour distortions in the photo. A time limit of 1 hour is the guiding factor in some of these decisions, particularly the simplification and cropping.

 

Until tomorrow,

cheers

Sharon

 

 

study – EASTERN DUSK ©Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Prismacolour Pencils... 5 x 7

 

Today is November 23. 50 years ago today the world mourned the sudden and unexpected loss of US president JFK. I think everyone remembers exactly where they were when they heard that news. It was a Friday, just as this year the 23^rd falls on a Friday as well. For me it was a school day, and I was just returning back to school after a trip uptown with a group of friends, on our lunch hour. Another classmate met us just inside the door, and in tears told the rest of us what had happened. At first I thought it was a joke, but no, it was real. It was a turning point in US politics and security, felt around the rest of the world as well.

 

But today also marks another 50 year anniversary - the first airing of the smash hit BBC programme DOCTOR WHO. They were hesitant to air it after the news about JFK aired earlier that day, for they figured nobody would tune in to a brand-new untested sci-fi adventure show because they'd be totally wrapped up in the tragic news from the US. But they went ahead anyway, and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

They had something new and different, and were very unsure of how it would meet with public approval. It's said they figured it would be a short-lived series, with a few episodes at best. But the creators of the show's concept believed in their idea, and their product, and they were brave enough to 'put it out there' for all the world to see. It didn't really matter to them what the public thought of it, they had created something unique and wanted to show it to the world, whatever the reaction might be.

 

Well, 50 years later we know what the reaction was. It was an instant hit, and the show has evolved over the years, just as the show's main character has evolved, so that several generations of big and little 'kids' now tune in regularly to see what's next. The show has become a cultural icon - there are few people who don't at least recognize that famous blue phone box, and certain words like 'Tardis' and 'Dalek' have attained nearly universal recognition.

 

I see the original creators of that programme as true 'artists'. They dared to 'think outside the box', they created something new and different, they were uncertain how it would be received but they put it out there anyway because they believed in what they had done. They did it for the love of what they had created, and the commercial success was a great little side-effect.

 

This is the way of creating paintings as well. The artist paints what matters to him/her, regardless what anyone else might think of it. We put our work out there for the public to see, not because we are looking for recognition or acclaim, but to show the world our statement - “this is how I see things”. “These are the things that matter to me.” If our work manages to touch someone in a special way, if a viewer 'gets' what we've tried to portray, that's just gravy.

 

This series of sky studies falls into that category ... it was important to me to do this series, for various reasons. I present them here simply to say 'here's what has caught my interest lately'. If someone viewing them can relate to these images in some way, that is wonderful. But it's not even necessary, for me to consider them successful in their own right. They have served a purpose and are very special to me.

 

Whether anyone will remember them in 50 years is a moot point. What matters is the 'now'. We only have today, even tomorrow is not guaranteed, as history teaches us time and again.    

 

And so, here is the development of study # 23.

    

          my photo                      after 10 minutes                   after 1 hour

 

Although the sun sets in the West, the colour effects can be seen in all directions. Here we see a view looking toward the East, as we approach the end of the day. The sun's angle is low in the sky, which allows us to see the purples and pinks in the spectrum of light.

 

As usual, I've cropped the image somewhat, and I've used the cloud formations as a guide to interpret, rather than aiming for an exact replica. By now you've heard me say (metaphorically, at least) several times how the colours in photographs are distorted from their real-life versions, and this is one aspect I take into account when I paint from photos.  I've always been a sky-watcher, and my over 60 years of 'looking up' have provided me with a good bank of 'colour memory' which I can pull out when I need it. This accumulated memory allows me to adjust colours in paintings so they're more realistic than what the photo portrays.

 

Tomorrow I'll be back with study # 24 ... hard to believe there's now only 7 more left to go ... what will I write about then I wonder?

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

 

 

study – SEPTEMBER BLUES © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Prismacolour ... 5 x 7

 

The sky in autumn usually tends to take on a warmer tone than the other three seasons, more of a Cerulean hue rather than an Ultramarine hue, so to speak. That is also the time of year when many people start to feel a bit 'blue', with the impending reality of shorter days and longer nights. Even though the days of 'Indian summer' can be nearly as warm and coaxing as the middle of July, there is that underlying feeling of 'ending' which waits just around the corner.

 

It truly is a season of endings - the end of the growing cycle, the end of the harvest cycle, the end of long bright days languishing in the heat .. little wonder many of us start to feel 'the blues' setting in. The whole concept of S.A.D - Seasonal Affective Disorder - has to do with the decreasing amount of sunlight in our days, and many individuals are known to suffer to various degrees from this very real phenomenon.

 

But I don't think it's just the reduced number of daylight hours which brings on this malady - I suspect it also has something to with the psychological effects of Mother Nature's cycle of life winding down for another year. As humans, we are privileged to foresee what is 'coming next'. We know that once the days start to get shorter, they will continue to do so, until it reaches the turning point in December. For anyone (like me) who runs on 'solar energy', this is a daunting idea at best.

 

With the shortened days comes the realization (for many of us) that energy levels are going to dip. We know that the temperatures will also dip, which means the ageing joints will start to creak and complain and function less efficiently. It's like you've sailed to the top of the hill at the end of August, and then the downward slide begins in September, until you land in the ditch of December, and then you're faced with the task of climbing up the other side of that ditch as we creep our way back toward spring again. It sounds like a lot of effort to get from the fall season to the next spring, which can bring on a serious case of the blues.

 

But it's pretty to look at.

 

This study is simply a basic rendition of that 'September blue' colour which I often have seen in the sky just before the leaves start to turn colour.

   

            My photo                          after 10 minutes                     after 1 hour

 

In this study, the central 'criss-cross' pattern of the clouds was done in a slightly exaggerated way, to strengthen the simple composition. I had originally planned to show more detail in the foliage patterns of the treeline, which were just beginning to show a bit of fall 'fading' in spots. However, once I had done the cotton-ball draft, it occurred to me that such detail in the treeline would compete with the patterns in the sky. Since this was primarily a study of skies, the treeline was subdued and simplified.

 

Even though this study is not as dramatic as many of the others have been, it still provides a nice little glimpse of a particular time of year, with its own unique lighting conditions.

 

Tomorrow I'll be back with another ... I hope you can join me then.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

 

 

 

 

study – EARLY EVENING SERENITY © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Prismacolour ... 5 x 7

 

At first glance, the photo reference for this study looked a bit 'mundane' ... I remembered when it was taken, just another calm peaceful early evening scene, with some pink in the sky but nothing really dramatic, like some of the other skies I've captured over the years. How would this scene translate into a painting, I wondered.

 

But the more I studied it, the more taken I was WITH the peaceful and serene tone of it. In another of those AHA moments, I realized that was why I had snapped the photo in the first place ... the working title became EARLY EVENING, but just as I began to think about it again to write this post, I added SERENITY to the title. I think now it states its purpose more clearly.

 

I've been doing some studying recently on how we choose subject matter for paintings. There are many different schools of thought out there of course, but what I've learned over the years about 'me' is that sometimes the subject matter chooses 'me'! I will see something which sometimes almost takes my breath away, and I just 'know' that I have to capture that in paint (or some kind of pigment). Like recognizing real love when it jumps into your lap, it's a 'knowing', impossible to define but nevertheless very real. There is no doubt involved, no second guessing, just an absolute certainty that this was meant to be.

 

I think I've mentioned before that I like to employ the concept of juxtaposition in some of my work. Bright light against dark dark. Incongruous elements placed side by side. That sort of thing. In this instance it's the very serene tone of the piece which is juxtaposed against the actual time when I captured the photo, when my life was not all that serene, I think that's probably why I was so drawn to this simple composition in the first place - it was a reminder of what my life 'could' be, and I needed to make some changes.

 

The reason it appeared at first glance 'now' to be rather mundane is that my life now has taken on that level of serenity I have worked for, after many changes. And so the painting becomes a symbol of 'what can be', but also 'what has become'.

 

And now let's take a look at the painting itself.

   

           My photo                         after 10 minutes                     after 1 hour

 

I've done a fair amount of cropping of the original image, zeroing in on one portion of the sky which has some interesting things happening in the cloud shapes and colours. The contrasts between the lightest and darkest parts of the sky have been exaggerated a bit, to add just a bit of 'zing' to the composition and prevent it from appearing too flat.

 

The skyline also has been varied a bit, and at the bottom left I've added a bit of hill which wasn't really there, in order to prevent the viewer's eye from migrating out of the painting at that point. The little bit of far distance which is visible in that area has been pushed back just a bit, to give more depth. Remember that photos lie as to the true colours and values, and in the photo that stretch of land is much darker and more defined than it would be in actual life. By lightening it just a wee bit it moves into the distance just a bit more.

 

The main focus is on the cloud shape in the lower left area - that is where your eye goes automatically. All other lines and shapes and colour gradations are designed to lead the eye back to that spot.

 

So that's the technical part covered, which is simply a means to an end - it's the 'how' of getting from a feeling or an idea, to the finished image. Or at least as 'finished' as a 1-hour quick study can be.

 

I'll be back tomorrow with another study to pick apart.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

 

study – SEPTEMBER SUNSET © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

CP ... 5 x 7

 

Well here we are again - study # 20, two-thirds of the way through the month, only 10 left to go after today.

 

One thing I've discovered as this series has progressed is the tendency for the later studies to be more 'stylized' than the earlier ones, with less attention paid to 'getting it right'. It has become more about 'making an interesting paintinig', rather than 'depicting a specific scene'. The reference photos have become more of a 'starting point', so to speak. For me, that is a HUGE step forward!!

 

I have always been very heavily caught up in depicting detail, which is one reason I gravitated to using Prismacolour pencils in the first place, all those many years ago. They gave me the control I needed in order to create finely detailed life-like pencil paintings. After becoming very adept at that, however, it has started to lose its appeal, for me at least. It's no longer the major challenge it once was.

 

Challenge is a necessary part of the art-making process for many of us, myself included. If it's not challenging enough, it becomes a bit 'mundane', and the art suffers by becoming more 'rote' and less 'creative'.

 

For the past couple years I've been playing around with various ways to make this medium more challenging. First I stopped using pencil sharpeners, instead I use a craft knife to pare away the wood from the coloured core of the pencils, and I use the blunt ends of the pencils to work with. I experimented with using broad fast strokes to 'get the colour on the paper' as quickly as possible, without any underlying drawing,  and then layered various colours of loops and whorls and other strokes, to let the eye blend them together.

WILMA   © Sharon L Hicks, 2012 

Prismacolour,  11 x 8

In this painting you can see that the grey coat colour is not really grey, but is made up of many layers of blues, beiges, greens, and pinks  ...  they aren't really 'blended' together  -  it's left up to the eye of the viewer to do that. 

 

I experimented with painting in 'negative colours', using the opposites of the actual colours in the scene. That one took a lot of 'thought power', and a strong knowledge of colour theory, and was indeed a challenge. But my first effort was so successful that I quickly moved on to something else.

 

LAUNDRY DAY IN NEGATIVE © Sharon L Hicks, 2012 ... Prismacolour, 9 x 7

 

The first image (on the left) is the actual painting ...  the colours you see are the colours in the painting.

 

The second image (on the right) is that image with the colours reversed - which is what the actual scene really looked like.

 

I also experimented with working on coloured paper, using the colour of the paper to unify all the colours applied over it, and allowing the paper colour to show through in places, as part of the image. Then I experimented with toning the white paper before beginning to work on it. And that process led to this process of using cotton balls and scraped pigment to create the draft, the first layer of colour over which the image is then constructed.

 

Where this experimentation will lead next is anybody's guess at this time. For now I'm just keeping my mind open to all possibilities, and whatever happens to pop into my mind will be the next experiment.

 

Here's a look at how study # 20 evolved:

   

            my photo                       after 10 minutes                      after 1 hour

 

This is a prime example of how the cloud forms and the treeline have been 'stylized', turned into interesting forms which flow nicely in the composition.  In the photo I felt the tree-tops were too emphasized, so I reduced those in order to retain the focus on the sky itself.

 

I hope you'll join me again tomorrow for study # 21.

 

cheers

Sharon

 

 

 

 

 

 

study – APPROACHING TWILIGHT © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

CP ... 5 x 7

 

Twilight - that magical time of day between light and dark. The sun has dipped below the horizon, but its light is still visible, refracted by earth's atmosphere. Pinks and purples appear in the sky, gradually replacing blue, due to the fact that the light is passing through more atmosphere at it comes in from a lower angle, which in turn diffuses the blue light rays and allows the red rays to reach our eyes.

 

It's a time of diminished light. Shadows disappear, and objects appear silhouetted against the bright sky. Some animals take to their dens or their roosts, preparing to settle in for the night in a safe place. Other animals wake up at that time of day, and head out on their nightly hunt for food. As the sun dips lower and lower below the horizon, light becomes dimmer and dimmer, until at last we are in darkness.

 

Scientists have it all measured out, with angles and formulae and fancy words. But for artists, the main concern is to figure out how to interpret the glorious scene before us. I've always felt this time of day to be peaceful, and serene, almost magical, and that's the feeling I was trying to portray in this study.

 

A lot of cropping took place with this reference photo. I used mainly the central portion of the image, as you can see below: 

 

                    From this ...                                                 ... to this

I also adjusted the position of some of the cloud formations within that cropped area, and took a few liberties with the far line of hills as well, all in the interest of creating a better image.

 

                  after 10 minutes                                     after 1 hour

 

Once I'd selected the portion of the scene to portray, the course of this study followed the same pattern as the others, with 10 minutes of work using cotton balls and scraped pigment to build a draft, then another 50 minutes with pencils to bring it up to this level.

 

Come back tomorrow for a look at another early evening sky study.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

 

 

study - JUNE BLISS © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

CP ... 5 x 7

 

Bliss is defined as a stage 'beyond' an emotional state, characterized as peace, happiness, enjoyment, pleasure, and satisfaction.

 

The title of this little study conjures up feelings of warmth, serenity, joy. It's obviously a bright warm summer day, which brings with it the temptation to toss aside responsibilities and settle in on a deck chair, feet up, cold glass of something in hand, and just peruse the heavens above.

 

From the colours in this image, you can tell the sun is high in the sky, marking the time as being around mid-day, the warmest part of the day. The gradation from darker blues at the top to the softer and paler blues at the horizon provides this information.

 

   

           my photo                  after 10 minutes                 after 1 hour

 

I guess the most obvious adjustment I made to the information in this photo was to warm and brighten the colours in the sky. Photography often has a tendency to make blues look much cooler than they really are in life, and this must be taken into account when painting from photos. In addition to the colours themselves, the range of values tends to be 'flatter' in photos, and this also was adjusted in the study, with greater contrast between lights and darks.

 

Painting from photos can't ever compete with painting from life, but for the artist who has previous experience working from life, and who is aware of the various distortions created by photography, it is actually possible to paint from photos very successfully.

 

It helps, too, if you work only from your own photos, ones you have taken yourself. That gives you the added advantage of having 'been there' at the time the information was recorded in the photo. You were present, to feel the breeze, to smell the grass, to feel the warmth on your face. Using that additional memory information you can fill in the gaps which photos create.  When I look at photos I've taken, even many years ago, I am able to 'imagine' myself back at that spot, and 'recapture' the feelings and reactions which the scene instilled in me at that time.

 

Tomorrow - another day, another study. I hope you can join me then.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

 

study – SUNSET BLAZE © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

CP ... 5 x 7

 

This study is a slightly different version of the first study in this series. I decided to tackle it again because it's an image I really love, and because I felt I'd learned a lot from doing the first half of this series and could perhaps do it a little better justice the second time around. I'll probably do it again too - it's one of those images that tugs at me to 'do it better' ... this one is an improvement over the first, but still sadly lacking in what I feel this image could actually be.

 

Yesterday we looked at that eternal question: “why is the sky blue?” The 'colour laws' which apply during the daytime totally go out the window once the sun sets low in the sky - we don't see 'clear blue sky' at either dawn or dusk.  Sunrises, and more especially sunsets, are often glorious displays of brilliant colours ranging from reds to oranges to pinks to purples.

 

So then the next question arises - 'given what we learned yesterday, where do those colours come from??!!'

 

Blue light, being the shortest wavelength in the spectrum, is scattered in every direction as it passes through the atmosphere, while longer wavelengths pass through with less scattering, so what we 'see' is blue.

 

When the sun is directly overhead, as it is during the day, the light travels a relatively short distance before it reaches the eye. We observed yesterday that we see the deepest blue when we look straight up, while the blue fades as it reaches the horizon.

 

Something different happens, however, when the sky is at or near the horizon.

The light rays must travel through a much longer distance before reaching the eye, and because the light has passed through more atmosphere in this longer journey, most of the shorter blue rays have been scattered away, so the longer wavelengths are the ones that make it through. Red is the longest wavelength, so that is the predominant colour we see, with orange and yellow as a close second and third.

 

This difference in distance travelled (which also means the amount of atmosphere which the light passes through) is better demonstrated in this combined diagram:

The dark arrow represents the distance which light rays must travel through atmosphere when the sun is overhead (vertical arrow), and when it is at the horizon (horizontal arrow).

The horizontal arrow is obviously much longer than the vertical arrow.

The shorter distance = blue sky, the longer distance = red sky.

 

So now that we know 'why' the sunset sky is red, here's how this study evolved:

   

           my photo                 after 10 minutes                    after 1 hour

 

Again I've cropped the bottom of the photo, to place more emphasis on the sky, with the treeline being just a 'grounding' element in the composition. The cotton-ball draft stage is becoming more elaborate as this series progresses, but also is accomplished in a shorter amount of time. This leaves more time to do the 'finishing' work, and also means a greater degree of 'finish' can actually be accomplished. We'll see what happens by the time we get to see study # 30.

 

Tomorrow join me again as we examine another step in this series of quick-studies.

 

Cheers

Sharon

study - FAIR WEATHER © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

CP ... 5 x 7

 

Fair Weather - another study of cloud formations, with bright blue sky overhead. Though this image did not originate on the marsh, my early exposure to that dome of sky (which I've mentioned before) has had a lasting influence on the way I see the sky, wherever I am. I am conscious of the 'roundness' of what is overhead, and of how that perspective affects the glorious nuances of colour we see in the heavens above.

 

One of the backbones of landscape painting is the visual effect of DISTANCE PERSPECTIVE. In short, objects in the distance appear smaller in size, and lighter & cooler in colour, than objects which are closer to us. We can easily see this when you look at a scene, either in life or in photos - trees in the far distance, for example, take on a pale blue-green tone, which fades even further as they recede into the farther distance, until those which are really far away don't show any green at all, just paler and paler shades of blue.

 

The same concept applies to the sky as well, though it might not be as obvious at first glance. In order to appreciate this Distance Perspective in the sky, it helps to visualize the atmosphere as it forms a layer around the earth. In cross-section, it would look something like this:

Light from the sun is comprised of various wave-lengths, which are interpreted by our brains as different colours. Visible light is made up of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Red has the longest wave-length, while blue has the shortest. As light passes through the atmosphere, the shorter wavelengths are scattered by particles and moisture droplets in the air, while the longer wavelengths are able to travel straight through. Therefore, the waves we end up seeing are the shorter ones which are the most scattered and re-directed toward us = blue.

 

Next, in this simplified diagram, visualize a person standing on the surface of the earth. The light coming straight down from the sun passes through less atmosphere than does light which travels to a distant object and is then reflected back to us. Therefore we see the sky overhead as a deeper blue than the sky in the distance.

 

In this study you can see that principle in action. The darker blue sky at the top of the picture is actually closer to us than the lighter blue sky at the horizon, and that is what accounts for the gradation in colour from top to bottom. Recreating this effect in a painting automatically adds the illusion of distance, so it looks like you can 'walk into' a flat piece of paper. It adds an extra visual dimension.

   

           My photo                       after 10 minutes                  after 1 hour

 

The colours in the photo are not 'true', since the photographic process often causes colours to appear darker and bluer than they are in life. Knowing this fact, and also being able to remember what the sky actually looked like when I took the photo, enables me to compensate for this colour distortion in the painting. You'll notice that the sky colours in the study are more 'realistic' than the 'cold blue' sky in the photo.

 

I've also cropped and altered the image, for the purpose of creating a stronger composition.

 

Tomorrow I'll be back with study # 17, and more information on painting sky colours.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

study - EVENING LIGHT © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

CP ... 5 x 7

 

Study # 15. November 15. Halfway through the month, halfway through posting this series of 1-hour quick studies, all done in Coloured Pencil.

 

I thought this might be a good day to mention a bit more about the cotton-ball process I've been using for the initial drafts for each of these studies. As I mentioned in the first post about this series, it started out as an idea I had to apply loose pigment to white paper, to produce a colour-toned paper upon which to create a Coloured Pencil painting.

Using a small craft knife (I use the type with snap-off blades), I scrape pigment from the sharpened ends of the coloured pencils, which accumulates into little piles on a scrap piece of paper. Then regular cotton balls are used to pick up the pigment and apply it to the drawing paper.

 

The tone of the paper then serves as a uniting influence on all other colours applied over it. The cotton balls also serve the purpose of applying the pigment powder evenly, plus the scrubbing motion actually pushes the pigment right into the paper, which leaves the surface free to receive more colour layers.

On a whim, I decided to test this method to do an actual draft for a study, but I took it one step further - instead of using just one colour to tone the paper, I used three primaries, and applied them to create a 'colour-field' sort of underpainting. It was surprisingly effective, and that's when the light bulb flashed on.

 

And the rest, as they say, is history.

 

So here's the visual progression of today's study, from photo to finished study:

               my photo                             after 10 minutes                           after 1 hour

 

This study is pretty straight-forward ... soft colours and cool tones of early evening, simplified of course by the constraints of the one-hour time limit. Using a timer is a definite advantage when doing quick-studies, for it 'forces' the creative part of your brain to make quick decisions, and to 'see' the basics of the scene.

 

So here ends the first half of this series of quick studies. Tomorrow we'll carry on with the next one. I hope to see you then.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

study - MARSH BLUES © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

CP ... 5 x 7

 

Another day, another sky - another marsh sky, in fact. I know I've mentioned this before, but it bears mentioning again, that this Tantramar marsh is one of my favourite places to be. At first glance it might not seem like much, just a vast flat expanse of land, bordered on either side by bands of habitation.

 

The natives used this area for gathering food, and for hunting waterfowl and other birds, when it was a large wetland area. The very name Tantramar is derived from a native word Tintemarre, which referred to the great noise of so many birds all singing and calling together at the same time.

 

When the earliest Acadian settlers arrived they brought with them the knowledge of how to build earthen dykes to hold back the floodwaters and reclaim the land on either side of the river which snaked through the area. The resulting fertile soil became the foundatain for one of the earliest European settlements in this area. The system of dykes they built is still in use today, having been maintained and augmented by successive generations of farmers who prize the marshlands for top-quality hay and grazing for livestock.

 

I've painted this marsh many many times over the past years, as have many other artists. The sky is one of the predominant features, going on as it does seemingly endlessly. I could probably do another whole series of just marsh skies, for it's never the same two days in a row.

   

           My photo                           after 10 minutes                        after 1 hour

 

This photo was cropped extensively for the study ... in fact I eliminated the bridge completely. I was SO tempted to include the bridge, that iconic symbol for which this marsh is well-known. I've painted that bridge many times, and this could have been another addition to THAT collection. But the theme of this series is 'sky', and so the bridge had to go. I might do another one some time, with the bridge in place - there will be less focus on the sky for that type of painting.

 

Tomorrow I'll talk a little more about the cotton-ball stage of these studies, as we look at study # 15 - the halfway mark in this little venture. See you then.

 

Cheers

Sharon

study - MILES OF BLUE © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

 

I've mentioned before about my early memories of the sky over the Tantramar marsh, and today's study shows just a tiny section of that 360 degree dome. Whichever way you turn, there is wide open sky. You can stand in one spot with camera in hand, rotate, and end up with a myriad of different views of the same dome. You can tip your head back and rotate it, to fully appreciate the 'dome' effect of that blue vastness, on all sides and overhead at the same time. As the flat marshes go on 'for miles and miles', so does the blue dome overhead. It's almost magical. At least that's the way I remember it.

 

Early memories tend to play an important role for most artists. Someone who grows up near the sea, for example, might display an aptitude for painting boats, and waves, and shorelines. Like writers, who are advised to “write what you know”, the same goes for visual artists - we paint our best when we paint what we know.

 

To really be able to portray a subject so it is 'believable', it's important to spend time getting to know that subject. All nuances of the subject. The way it looks, the way it smells, the way it feels, the way it affects us. Then when you do start to paint it, all those underlying 'understandings' will shine through in the work, and it creates more than 'just a replica' of the subject, whatever it may be.

 

Here's the progression from photo to completed study, as usual ...

   

           my photo                  after 10 minutes                    after 1 hour

 

Here again I've done some cropping, to zero in on what I felt was the most important portion of the scene. The foreground was reduced to a narrow strip, which directs attention to the sky and emphasizes its predominance in the scene. Colours were 'normalized' to take into account the colour distortion created by the photographic process. Cloud shapes were simplified somewhat, again to clarify the focus and also to accommodate the time restriction implicit in this series of one-hour studies.

 

Stay tuned tomorrow for study # 14 ...

 

cheers

Sharon

 

 

 

study – HEAVY OVERHEAD © Sharon L Hicks

CP ... 5 x 7

 

I'm a huge fan of the English language, with all its twists and turns and foibles and ambiguities and vagaries. Words often have more than one meaning, which leads to two of my favourite 'word games' - puns, and the double entendre. The title of this study is one example. The term 'heavy overhead' is often used to describe the high operating costs of a business. It can suggest a threat of worsening financial situation for the business, if the costs outweigh the income. In the case of this painting, the title defines the type of clouds high in the sky - they look 'heavier' than the clouds below them, and they suggest a threat of worsening weather.

 

I play with words in other ways too ... sometimes I like to combine words to create a new word, especially when assigning titles to my paintings. This scene showing a typical view of the Tantramar river out on the marsh, for example, is titled TANTRAMARSH. A study of sweet peppers, done when I was trying to figure out the seemingly strong appeal of using them as subject matter, ended up providing me with a whole new perspective on these tasty crunchy goodies, and hence the title became PEPPERSPECTIVE.

 

left  -  TANTRAMARSH © Sharon L Hicks, 2010  ...CP ... 6 x 10

right  - PEPPERSPECTIVE © Sharon L Hicks, 2000 watercolour ... 11 x 14

 

But I digress ... again - I do have a tendency to do that. Back to the study at hand. Here's how it played out from photo, to cotton-ball draft, to 'finished' study. Remember that these studies are not really 'finished paintings', but they are 'finished' in the sense that this is as far as I could get in one hour.

 

              My photo                          after 10 minutes                        after 1 hour

 

This is another example of cropping the original photo to include only the part which was most important to the composition. I completely eliminated the tree on the left, and much of the bottom part of the photo. By doing this, the focus is placed on the sky itself - everything else is secondary. I also intensified parts of the cloud colours and forms, to further define and 'frame' the scene in a more artistic manner. Even the angles of the lower clouds have been adjusted slightly, to create a stronger feeling of eye movement through the composition.

 

Notice too that the bit of background along the bottom of the painting has been altered as well - instead of having just a flat area on the lower left side, which would tend to lead the eye out of the picture, I've added a bit of an opposing hill, which serves to direct the eye back into the scene. It's little tricks like these which make for a stronger composition.

 

I'm really enjoying these little studies. Working quickly, with the timer ticking away in the background, lends an air of intensity to the process, a sense of urgency to capture whatever it was that first caught my eye and led me to snap the photo in the first place. This gives the resulting studies a 'freshness', which shines through in the final image.

 

I'll be back tomorrow with study # 13. I hope you'll join me.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

 

 

 

 

study - SKY RIPPLES © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

CP ... 5 x 7

 

Today is a somber day, as we pay our respects to our veterans. As I mentioned yesterday, this post will be brief, in recognition of that sentiment.

 

Study # 11 also shows a somewhat somber sky, which is fitting for the day. It's done from a photo taken just a couple years ago, and I was captivated by the rippled effect of the cloud formation.

 

Here's the progression from photo, to cotton-ball draft, to 'finished' quick study ...

 

   

                my photo                   after 10 minutes                       after 1 hour

 

Tomorrow I'll be back with study # 12. See you then.

 

Cheers

Sharon

study - UNDECIDED © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

CP ... 5 x 7

 

Wow! Study # 10 - that's one third of the month covered !! It looks as though I'll be able to pull this off - a blog post every day for a month. 10 down, 20 to go. It looks promising from here on in.

 

The title of this little piece arose from the fact that the sky seemed to be getting ready for two very different styles of weather ... down near the horizon the sky was bright and sunny, but overhead the storm clouds were gathering - it was a really eye-catching contrast, and contrast in composition is one thing I just can't pass up. I had to 'have' this one for my collection!

 

I don't remember now how the weather panned out for the rest of that day, the photo was captured quite a few years ago, but the image remains forever in my memory bank. I'd like to think positively and say that the storm clouds dissipated with no effect on the weather. On the other hand, of course, they might have descended and taken over the skyscape soon after this image was caught.

 

Whichever way the rest of that day turned out, the fact remains that this scene was beautiful, in its own right. Part of the beauty lies in the question itself - 'what will happen next?' It adds a sense of mystery to the scene, a tension which serves to increase the drama of the image, a powerful statement in its own right.

 

We can liken this effect to some of life's moments. There are times when a situation could go in one of two directions - positively, or negatively. When we are 'in the moment' we cannot predict the outcome, but that does not take away from the impact of the moment itself. We can appreciate the beauty, the immediacy, the uniqueness, of whatever is happening to us at this moment in time. If we can learn to 'live in the moment', then whatever the outcome is, we will be prepared to deal with it.

 

Over the past few years I've come to see life as a 'series of moments', each one superceding the previous one, each one individual and unique. Each moment is worthy of appreciation on its own merit, regardless of what came before or what will come after. 'Living in the moment' is a powerful experience.

 

On that note, let's have a look at this study, from start to finish ...

 

              my photo                             after 15 minutes                          after 1 hour

 

When assessing a photo to be used for a quick study, I often squint my eyes and ask 'what do I notice first?' That little exercise plays a large part in deciding what direction the quick study will take - it will help determine what will be the 'feeling' of the image I create. In this case, it was the juxtaposition of the dark threatening clouds above the light fluffy 'sun-clouds' which became the main feature of this little study.

 

Photography usually alters colours, so everything turns out more blue than nature intended, and it also tends to 'flatten' the values as well, so there is less variance from light to dark, or sometimes the value shift is more intense than it should be - stark white lights, for example, and nearly-black darks with no details visible. Neither of these is an ideal combination to use as a model for a painting, but they can be overcome.

 

The trick to working from photos is to first scan the photo into the computer, then I'm able to adjust colours and values so they more closely resemble what they would have looked like in nature. Knowing what they 'should' look like comes from years of experience in just 'looking' at nature. I can manipulate colours and values, and then print out the adjusted image, which will be a more 'natural' rendition of how the scene really appeared.

 

Also, as with the others in this series, simplification played a large role in this study as well. For one thing, I minimized the impact of the background hills, and completely eliminated any trace of houses etc at the lower edge - those would have been a distraction, and would have taken away from the impact of the sky. These are, after all, studies of skies.

 

 

I'll be back tomorrow with study # 11 ... it will be Remembrance Day (Veteran's Day), so I'll keep it simple in respect for the meaning of the day.

 

Until then,

Sharon

 

 

 

 

 

study - NOVEMBER OBLIQUE © Sharon L Hicks

CP - 5 x 7

 

This was a very unusual cloud formation - the cloud bank on the right was really quite slanted, and at first glance could be mistaken for the side of a distant mountain. But there are no mountains where I live - apart from gently rolling ones further inland. It was definitely one I just HAD to capture!!

 

Yesterday I mentioned that Simplicity was the key to doing this series of quick studies. That concept could also be applied to other ventures as well, even to life itself. We complicate our lives with deadlines, schedules, expectations, and collections of 'stuff'. While each of these elements can enhance our life experience in their own right, when taken to extremes they can weigh us down and eventually lead to a life of just trying to 'keep up' with what we feel we 'should' be doing.

 

I like this quote, attributed to Leonardo daVinci:   “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” When we simplify our lives, we open ourselves up to a greater richness of experiences than we could ever have imagined possible. When the mind is not bogged down with 'should do', we can more clearly see what we 'can do'.

 

I'm seeing more and more people of retirement age (which is where I am) divesting themselves of possessions and routines, downsizing to smaller quarters to simplify their daily lives, which in turn allows them a newfound freedom to explore possibilities outside the realm of their previous habits. Clearing out your living space also effectively clears out the debris in your mind, and opens it up to 'what else' might be out there to enjoy. It's really liberating.

 

This concept of Simplification plays a very important role in doing quick studies - where the goal is to 'capture and record' the most basic information, in the shortest time possible. With practice and repetition this process becomes easier and easier, until eventually it is an integral part of artistic vision itself.

 

With that in mind, here's the development steps of this quick study:

   

          my photo                       after 10 minutes                       after 1 hour

 

In the first step, the cotton-ball draft, you can see where I've very quickly indicated the position of each major component of this composition ... making a few changes, as usual, to strengthen the overall impact.

 

This time the draft stage was accomplished in only 10 minutes, which marked the 'next step' in the progression of this method. After doing 8 previous studies, my mind was becoming more adept at quickly picking out the most important information to use, and my hand was gaining skill in following what the mind directed.

 

As I've done in some of the other studies, I changed the treeline slightly, which adjusted the scale of the sky, making it the most prominent part of the composition. With only 10 minutes devoted to the initial draft, this left a full 50 minutes for the 'finishing' work, which allows for a slightly more 'complete' result. You can still see, though, that it is not really as 'finished' as a painting would be. But the goal of recording the information quickly was reached.

 

Tomorrow I'll be back with the next in this series. See you then.

Cheers

Sharon

 

study – WINTER PINK © Sharon L Hicks

CP ... 5 x 7

 

There is not a lot of time to write today ... I slept in this morning because I was up half the night with neck pain, caused by a flareup of an old whiplash injury which often crops up at this time of year when the weather turns cooler. I then played Bridge all afternoon, an enjoyable but time-intensive activity. Now I just have a few minutes before I head out the door again for a supper engagement.

 

So, brief is better than nothing at all. Whatever works.

 

This is a pretty straightforward study, with the focus on the pink undertones throughout the late afternoon winter sky. Here's how it unfolded:

   

          my photo                      after 15 minutes                after 1 hour

 

You can really see how I cropped quite a lot from this photo, in order to focus on that lovely little patch of sky. The pink undertones seemed so peaceful and relaxing, and I couldn't resist them.

 

For all of these studies I've been using a base layer of just 3 primaries - a blue tone, a red tone, and a yellow tone. The actual pencils I use have been varying from study to study, but I start each one with a limited palette of just 3 primaries. This simplifies the process tremendously, and is one of the reasons I was able to cut the draft time down from the original 30 minutes, to 20 minutes, to 15 minutes (as in this one), and later to 10 minutes, and finally to just 5 minutes. Simplification is the key.

 

And that is it for today. I'll be back tomorrow with study # 9, and a little more time to spend on it. Until then, look up - look way-y-y-y-y up :)

 

cheers

Sharon

 

 

 

 

study – AUTUMN SKY © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

CP ... 5 x 7

 

Here we are, day 7, study # 7. This marks a full week of posts. 3 more weeks to go, plus a couple days.

 

This study marks a couple changes in the process I've been developing for these quick studies. For one thing, the initial cotton-ball stage only took 15 minutes this time, which left a good 45 minutes to do the 'finishing' work. It's like any other venture in life - the more you do something, the easier (and often quicker) it becomes. The activity becomes more 'automatic'.

 

I can relate this phenomenon to my current latest 'endeavour' - I've joined a Tai Chi class. We meet once each week, and last night marked the 6^th week I've attended. For anyone unfamiliar with this form of martial art / exercise, there are 108 'moves' in a 'set'. Each move is learned individually, and then put together in sequence. The first night we covered the first couple moves, with all the little 'transition' steps which take you from one move to the next.

 

I've never been all that coordinated, but I do like a challenge. I was absolutely certain I'd never master even those first opening moves, but I really enjoyed the process, so I went back the next week. Imagine my surprise when I discovered those first few moves were not so hard the second time ... and then we learned a couple more moves, which again I was certain I'd never get the hang of.

 

This pattern has repeated itself each week, until now the first 15 moves have become 'almost' automatic, and we learned the final couple moves in this starting sequence of 17 moves. AND there's only 91 left to go!! Do I feel daunted? 6 weeks ago I was feeling quite daunted, as I watched the more experienced members of the group go through the entire set of 108 moves. But now? Nope. I know that with time the entire process will become 'routine', as muscle memory takes over.

 

And it's the same for any artistic endeavour as well - the hand-eye link is forged and strengthened by repetition. The more you do something, the easier and more direct it becomes. This was the case with this series of 30 quick studies. I started with 30 minutes for the initial draft, but by the time I reached study # 30 I was able to capture the essence of the information I needed in only 5 minutes.

 

Here's the progression of this particular study:

   

            my photo                         after 15 minutes                      after 1 hour

 

As I mentioned previously, the initial cotton-ball draft for this one took only 15 minutes, as my process evolves. You can see how I altered the original a bit, leaving out some elements (like the branches in top right), and doing a bit of rearranging to make a stronger composition.

 

I can't stress that point often enough - it's the 'composition' that counts most, not create an 'exact replica'. We have cameras to 'record reality', we use paintings to 'express an impression' of that reality. It's important not to confuse the two. Of course if you're doing portraits, then it does become important to 'get it right', to get a good likeness of the subject, but that's a horse of another colour. In landscape, 'interpretation' is where it's at.

 

I tend to be very detail-oriented in my work, and I spent quite a few years perfecting my 'photo-realistic' techniques using Coloured Pencils, but eventually that process became more-or-less automatic, and I needed to stretch the artistic muscle a bit and try some looser work. Exercises such as this little series are excellent for 'loosening up', and changing my focus from detail to overall picture. I find now I'm reaching an equilibrium - work 'general' first, and THEN work in some details. Seems to be a good direction, so far.

 

Another departure with this study ... originally I'd planned to wait until all 30 were completed and then pick a few to use as models for larger paintings. However, the 'oil painting bug' had hit me suddenly, I pulled out the old paintbox and dusted off the old brushes. I really liked this sky, so decided to translate it into an oil painting.  It just 'felt right'.

AUTUMN SKY © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

oil ... 12 x 16

 

For this I painted straight from the study, rather than referring back to the original source photo. That way I was translating my original impressions, rather than reinventing the wheel. Oil paint is a medium I haven't done much with for quite awhile, so this sky study was a good place to start. More will follow, I'm sure.

 

So, until tomorrow, when we'll examine study # 8, I want to say thank you for following this series so far, and stay tuned for what comes next.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

 

 

OMINOUS © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

CP ... 5 x 7

 

I think this is one of the most dramatic sky effects in my collection. It was approaching day's end, and as I glanced upward and caught sight of the bat-wing shaped cloud blocking the light, I knew I had to add it to my collection. I took several shots of that sky - back in the day before digital cameras, which meant only the best photo was kept and the rest were tossed - after I had the film developed, that is.

 

Digital photography has changed the artist's experience. Some say it's made us more dependent upon technology, which I guess is a fair statement. However I see it as a positive change. You can go out sketching, for example, take reference photos for later use back in the studio, and check the photos right on the camera to make sure you have captured the information you need. You can just keep clicking away until you get the 'right shot', then delete the rest. No waste.

 

With film cameras, on the other hand, you would have to send the film off for developing and wait for the resulting prints before you could know whether the shots you'd taken would be of any use. If they were not what you needed, it was a 'lost opportunity', plus you now have a pile of useless photos which end up in the trash.

 

That being said, here's how this painting developed (pardon the pun) ...

 

              my photo                       after 20 minutes                     after 1 hour

 

This is another 20 min : 40 min time split. The basic colour patterns are laid in with cotton balls and pigment scraped from the pencils. This method allows for 'quick decisions' and capturing the basic tones of a subject, while the cotton balls prevent you from putting in any detail at all. It's simply not physically possible to do fine detail with a wadded-up bit of cotton batting. It encourages simplification, lends a real sense of freedom, and is very energizing.

 

You can see how I also 'punched up' the colours a bit, to increase the drama and make it a 'better painting'. We also have to remember that photos don't portray colours quite realistically, and I recalled those ominous clouds as being more deep purple rather than just gray, as the photo indicates. And so I used my artistic judgement and depicted what I remembered, instead of just sticking to what I could see in the photo.

 

Tomorrow we'll look at study # 7. See you then.

 

Cheers

Sharon

BEACH BLUES © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Coloured Pencil, 5x7

 

Day # 5, study # 5. Still managing to find something to say every day, along with revealing yet another quick study.

 

This sky appealed to me because of the sharp distinction between the deep clear solid blue of the upper sky and the soft pale wispy nature of the lower part of the sky. This type of contrast always catches my eye. Sitting out on the deck down at my dad's cottage, I immediately grabbed for my camera when I glanced upward and spotted this intriguing combination.

 

The sky is an elusive quarry. I've learned over the years to keep a camera handy wherever I go - you just never know when something interesting is going to happen overhead. If I have to go searching for my camera, by the time I locate it the light will have changed and I'll have missed my opportunity to 'capture' another one. I guess you could say this collection of sky studies is my 'trophy' collection - the 'best of the best', so to speak.

 

Here's how this study unfolded.

          My photo                     after 20 minutes                  after 1 hour

 

This study marks another progression in the development of this process. I spent only 20 minutes on the cotton-ball stage, which allowed an extra 10 minutes of 'finishing' work with the pencils. You can also see how I was after the 'feeling' of the sky, rather than trying to reproduce an exact replica. This sky looks bright and crisp, and that's what I was aiming for. I'm quite happy with the results.

 

This exercise has been very helpful in forcing me to ignore details (usually the first thing I focus on), and record the 'essence' of the scene in a short time. Of course, a 'whole hour' might not 'seem' like a 'short time', when it comes to painting - after all, you can often do a complete watercolour painting in less time than that!! But with Coloured Pencils, a 'complete painting' will usually take a minimum of 30 hours, so by comparison an hour is indeed a 'short time'. It all depends on what you are comparing it to.

 

Come visit me again tomorrow, for a peek at study # 6.

 

cheers

Sharon

 

 

 

study - SUNSET RAYS © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Coloured Pencil, 5 x 7

 

Day 4, and still going strong. This idea of posting a blog every day for a whole month is definitely an interesting challenge, and I do love a good challenge. Let's hope I don't run out of things to say before the end of the month.

 

This little study is one of my favourites in the series. I just love the understated colours, and the glow coming from the sinking sun, hidden behind that wall of clouds near the horizon, and the silhouetted treeline which increases the drama. This was a very satisfying piece to do.

 

Satisfaction plays a large part in the artistic process. After all, if something doesn't provide some sort of personal satisfaction, what is the point in doing it?! Exactly!! I could be spending my time doing something more 'conventional', but creating pictures has always provided me with great satisfaction and so I'm driven to continue on in this pursuit.

 

Back to the subject of the day. The first stage, using cotton balls and pigment scraped from the pencils, took 30 minutes, and I used a timer to limit myself to just that time. Using a timer is more than just a way to keep track of the time - it's a little 'trick', which engages the Left Brain (the time-keeper part of the brain), while allowing the Right Brain (the creative side) to have free reign and translate visual information directly onto the paper.

 

Here's the progression of how this study developed ...

        My photo                     after 30 minutes                       after 1 hr

 

This study followed the original proportions and scale fairly closely, with a few augmentations. For example, on the left side I added a bit of darker tones in the sky to keep the bright area from drifting off the edge of the page, and slightly reduced the height of the treeline. This makes for a better composition. Not that I'm trying to 'improve' on mother nature, but my goal was to create the best possible 'picture', rather than an 'exact replica' of the source.

 

Join me again tomorrow, when we'll examine study # 5 in the series.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A SKY FOR ROBIN © Sharon L Hicks, 2013

Coloured Pencil, 5 x 7

 

Here we are, 3 days into this month of daily blogs ... that's the goal I've set for myself, since it so nicely fit in with my just-completed project of doing 30 quick studies of skies in 30 days.

 

This one was done on August 23, which would have been my late husband's 68^th birthday ... I picked a photo with 'robin's egg blue' in the sky - one of his favourite colours, and I definitely felt his presence as I worked through this exercise.

 

You can see from these scans that the 'completed' study is far from 'complete', in relation to my usual paintings done with Coloured Pencil. For instance, you can see areas where the white paper is peeking through, creating little pinpoints of white which are most obvious in the darker areas. But, since the goal was to finish it in an hour (or thereabouts), this was as far as I could go with the blending.

 

However, since the purpose was to capture the basic visual information from the photo, it is a success.

 

You might wonder just what is the purpose in doing quick studies? Wouldn't I be better off spending those 30-odd hours completing a 'properly finished' painting instead of these little nuggets which will possibly just be filed away for future reference material? After all, a 'regular' painting would take about the same amount of time ...

 

The benefits of doing quick-studies, especially a series of them, are many. For one thing, it's a chance to try out a composition on a small scale without investing a large amount of time in it. It's also a way to experiment with different techniques on a small scale. The cotton balls used for the first stage of each of these studies is a good example. It was something I wanted to try out, and by the end of the full set of 30 studies I felt I had become quite adept at this method. I'll probably use it in the future, on larger paintings, since it works so well at laying in a basic groundwork of colour to work on.

 

Here's the progression for this study, from photo to first draft, to finished study.

   

           My photo                   after 30 minutes              after 70 minutes

 

You can see how I cropped the original photo for this study, and also adjusted the scale somewhat, in the effort to make it 'a better picture'. Adherence to the original resource material is not what's important in this exercise, it's making the best picture possible, using the information from the source material.

 

You can also see I went slightly over my 'allotted' time with this one - I just got carried away and kept on working after the timer dinged it's warning that my time was up. Call it nostalgic, or carelessness, or stubbornness, but this one just seemed to need my attention for a little while longer.

 

This was the first study in this series where I ceased adding straight pencil to the cotton-ball draft, instead I just did a little more work with the cotton balls and pigment scraped from the pencils. The process was beginning to evolve, and it continued to change slightly over the course of the rest of the studies. By the end of the project, the cotton-ball stage had been reduced to a mere 5 minutes, which allowed more time for the finishing pencil work.  Progress, one step at a time.

 

Tomorrow we'll look at study # 4,  I'll see you then.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

Yesterday I posted about how this project started, from the first basic idea to the refinement of the process, to the finished set of 30 quick-studies of skies. Here's the 2^nd study in the series ...

study # 2 – FEBRUARY LATE AFTERNOON

© Sharon L Hicks, 2013   CP     5 x 7

 

Most of my life I've been drawn to the sky (no pun intended). Perhaps it stems from my having grown up on the edge of the vast Tantramar Marsh near my hometown, where the sky is a huge endless dome overhead, ever-changing in the vagaries of Maritime weather. It's said that if you don't like the weather in my area, just wait 10 minutes. It'll change.

 

Many people think of the sky as a clear sheet of blue, but it's so much more than that. I've always marvelled at the amazing nuances of varied colour, even in a 'clear blue sky'. As a child I would study the sky intently, taking in all the various bits of colour I'd see there. I guess at the time I just assumed everyone else saw the same thing, but I've since learned that to many people it's not as obvious as it might appear. I think it's very true that artists do see the world slightly 'differently'.

 

For myself, I've always observed my surroundings in terms of form, and colour, and contrast ... instead of as 'things'. Gazing down a woodland path, for example, the play of light and the way it changes the appearance of the trees and grass and ground, the way the shadows define the forms, the way the colours sparkle in the light and fade into the shadows ... all these nuances are what I see, all at the same time, and it's sometimes enough to take my breath away. I call it my “aha” moment. I see the world in terms of 'paintings'.

 

This study is based on a photo I'd taken quite a few years ago, and here is the progression from photo to first step, to completed study. Again, this process took a little over an hour. I started with the cotton balls again, and added some pencil work to the initial draft. Then after I scanned that into a computer file, I finished it with more pencil work.

   

            My photo                    after 30 minutes                 after 70 minutes

 

You can see where I cropped the original photo, to concentrate on the area of sky which first caught my attention. This gives more importance to that little dark cloud floating along surrounded by light and colour. I also just 'suggested' the treeline, and it is rendered basically in silhouette. This serves to call more attention to what's going on above.

 

The purpose of this set of studies, as I mentioned last week, was not to produce an 'exact replica' of the photos - if I wanted to do that I could just enlarge the photo and frame that! Rather, the goal is to depict a 'feeling' which that sky evoked when I first encountered it.

 

To accomplish this, I first study the photo intently for a bit, allowing my mind to go back to that point in time when I first witnessed this grand composition of nature. When I'm able to recapture that feeling of awe and grandeur in my mind, then I'm able to transfer that feeling to the painting. It puts 'life' and 'dimension' into an otherwise inanimate flat image on paper.

 

Stay tuned tomorrow to see the next study in this series, and to see how the process began to evolve as I worked.  Till then, take a look upwards when you're outside today  - you'll see what I mean.

 

Cheers

Sharon

 

 

November is now upon us  -  the month dedicated to bloggers  -  when many writers tackle the challenge of posting 50,000 words during the month, in daily doses. There's even a registry where you can list your own blog, and daily prompts if you happen to run short on ideas. Great idea. So how can I adapt that to a blog about painting?

 

That was the question which popped into my mind when I noticed the informational email which arrived in my inbox just a few minutes ago. And immediately after the question presented itself, so did the answer.

 

I've recently completed a little project of quick-studies, done in Coloured Pencil, my medium of choice. I had spent the first 8 months of this year preparing for and then completing an exhibit of my work at a nearby gallery, during which I also taught a 2-day workshop in using the pencils. Late in August, when I collected the remaining paintings from the exhibit (those that didn't sell), and sorted and then stored the materials I'd used for the workshop, I was left with that feeling of “what's next?”

 

I'd expected that, and I was prepared for it. I knew I would spend some time just puttering, sorting and rearranging the studio corner of my 'shoebox studio' - so-called because of my growing collection of repurposed shoe boxes which are used for storing art supplies - they stack very nicely and keep supplies organized and easy to access. Also, my studio space is tucked into what was originally the dining area of my apartment, so it's a little like working in a shoebox as well.

 

But I digress.

 

I carried on in this manner for a couple days, waiting for the next idea to pop into my head. It didn't.

 

The real story here is what happened when I decided to sort out one of those brown file boxes you can see in the picture - it contained old photos I've collected over many years and cameras. Before the digital age, where you can just delete surplus pictures even before you upload them to the computer, I used to take numerous pics of any subject which happened to catch my eye, and as a result I ended up with piles and piles of 4 x 6 snapshots of subjects and scenes which had impressed me or touched me in some way, all taken with the intention that 'someday I'll use those for paintings'. Well, what better time for 'someday' than right now?!!

 

THREE LIGHT BULBS

As I sorted and filed the photos into categories, it struck me that I had accumulated a LOT of pictures of skies ... morning skies, evening skies, sunny skies, stormy skies ... skies, skies, skies ... and then came the first light bulb flash, so to speak ... a series of sky paintings could be just the ticket !! I had found my next idea, in a box. Not a shoebox, exactly, but close enough.

 

As a bit of background, I've used some of those photos for reference over the years, as inspiration for a sky in a landscape, but I've never taken the time to focus on the sky iteslf as the main subject of a painting. And, as a little further background, anyone familiar with my Coloured Pencil work has a pretty good idea of how many hours go into the completion of a single painting. So the obvious question quickly presented itself - how can I create a series of paintings without spending two or three years on the project.

 

The answer presented itself rather by chance, or happenstance, or perhaps Serendipity ... in the CP workshop I'd recently taught, I'd shown the participants how I'd experimented with using cotton balls and pigment scraped from the pencils to add a coloured tone to the paper before beginning work on a painting. So I decided to try that with a sample piece ... it should speed up the process a bit - instead of working on white paper there would already be some colour to build on. I also decided to do this first sample as a 'quick study' - keep it small, I figured 5” x 7” would be a good size to try ...

 

I had picked a sunset sky for this first sample, so I decided to add a warm orangey tone to the paper, over which I could then add the deep purples and blues and scarlets and orange tones with layers of pencil, in the usual manner. As soon as I started, however, with a cotton ball dipped in peachy-orange pigment scraped from a pencil, the second light bulb flashed, and I decided to see what would happen if I used several different colours to lay down all the basic colour areas in the sky.

 

The biggest advantage of applying pigment with the cotton balls is that it covers the area quickly, and it also presses the pigment right into the paper, creating a nicely toned ground on which to apply more pigment layers with the pencils. It's easier and quicker to build up dark tones as the painting progresses, since there is less 'white paper' to contend with. The basic tones are already set before I start in with the pencils.

 

After about 20 minutes of this cotton-ball process I ended up with a half-decent 'underpainting', which could serve as a perfect 'foundation layer' which I could then finish with the pencils. I immediately recognized this was something to pursue further, as I estimated it would have taken me at least a couple hours to accomplish this same foundation layer by using pencils in the usual manner.

 

As an added benefit, the pigment had been pushed right into the paper by the action of the cotton balls, instead of building up a layer on the surface. That was light bulb number three. After another 10 minutes working with pencils over the coloured foundation layer, the study was about half done. So I scanned it into my computer files, and continued on.

 

After another half hour of pencil work, I ended up with what I considered a fairly decent Quick Study. It contained all the visual information I would need in order to do further work and turn it into a 'finished painting', or to use it as a guide for doing a larger painting.

left: my reference photo,  center: after 30 minutes,   right: total time 1 hour.

 

THE PLAN EVOLVES

Using that first study as my guide and inspiration, I formulated my plan - 30 SKIES IN 30 DAYS now seemed like a goal which could actually be accomplished, in a reasonable time. 30 hours is just about the average time it usually takes to do a complete CP painting, in 8x11 size, so I'd be committing no more time than would be required for one single `regular`painting ... and I'd have 30 studies to show for my time! Win-win!! I got excited.

 

And so the challenge began. I've said before that I need to challenge myself from time to time, and this was definitely going to be a challenge.

 

Over the next few studies, I refined my process so that the first 10 minutes was done with just cotton balls and scraped pigment, then 50 minutes was spent with pencils to finish the job. By the time I got to the final few, the first step was taking only 5 minutes at the most, which left a little more time for the remaining work.

 

Using a timer helped keep me focused on getting the information down as quickly as possible, without being too finicky with details, which I normally have a tendency to do. The goal was to capture the essence of the sky scene in as short a time as possible - no easy task when working with pencils !! This process reminds me of doing timed studies in a Life Drawing group I used to attend, where the model would do a series of short timed poses and the challenge was to do as quick a sketch as possible to record the pose. An excellent exercise to strengthen eye-hand coordination. Again, win-win.

 

Now all 30 studies have been done. The original concept was to do them all in 30 'consecutive' days, but life being what it is, there were some days when there was just no time to work on this project. I also teach classes with the local Art Association, and preparation for those classes had to take first priority. But the studies were still completed in 30 days, so I feel I accomplished what I set out to do.

 

 

So this will be my challenge for the 'blogging month' of November - I'll post one each day. Check back tomorrow for 30 SKIES IN 30 DAYS, # 2.