I’m continuing to experiment with using the iPod Touch to do location warm-up and value sketches. I sat in the hammock looking at the back porch and did two quick sketches. I did the first one in Sketch Club. It’s the little vertical one. Next I used Brushes to make a horizontal sketch. In both I used a very soft, large brush. I started with black and sketched in the darkest areas. I then worked with midtone gray, light gray, and white. I added color in a second layer.
The first sketch helped me in the second sketch. It improved my visual memory. I didn’t have to look up as often. I already knew the basic placement of forms and angles, values and colors.
Sketching helps me remember what I see which is different than what a camera sees. Our eyes move from object to object. We piece together information to form an understanding of what’s in front of us. Sizes, values, colors, relationships are interpreted rather than recorded. We see a greater range of values and colors than a camera can record. Notice how dark and lifeless the original photo is. I had to enhance the color and contrast with Photogene to get it close to what I saw. Also notice that I had to zoom in and crop out a bunch of stuff.
Next time I want to try sketching in a square. That will allow me to experiment with cropping versions to different formats.
Jim
