Yesterday I drove downtown for a doctor visit. Afterwards I stopped in the Bush Park parking lot to eat some lunch. I looked across the street at the Salem Hospital as I ate. I had a sketch book in my pocket and spent about 30 minutes drawing and painting the scene. I also took a reference photo with my cellphone. This is the first painting I’ve done on location using my new light weight travel kit. I made it from an old leatherette day planner cover. I cut a half sheet of 9 x 12 inch watercolor paper and folded it into thirds. This makes 6 “pages” if you use both the front and the back. Each “page” is 3 x 6 inches and fits nicely into the pocket that used to hold the calendar. I can also carry a Pentel mechanical pencil clipped to the inside cover and a paper palette which I made by scribbling squares with Faber-Castell watercolor pencils. The top two rows are 14 pure colors and the bottom row of three are two colors each mixed. I carry my Kurataki Mini Waterbrush in my shirt pocket along with various pens.
I first made a pencil sketch. I then lifted color from the paper palette with the waterbrush and applied it to the sketch. It worked really well. I like the size. It easily fits in a coat pocket. You can’t paint unless you have your materials with you. This is convenient to carry all the time.
This is a good example of how art can create a reality that can’t be captured in a photograph. I think it has to do with a number of things. First is technical. Each medium can reproduce a certain range of contrast and color space – a photo is different from oil paints is different from watercolor is different from what the eye can see. Also, you can achieve different effects in different media. For instance in a painting you can juxtapose dabs of complimentary colors on the edges of objects to create a vibrancy that you can’t get in a photograph. Next is lighting. A bright sunny day looks very different than an overcast one. Most importantly is artist’s choice or intent. An artist can choose to highlight certain subjects or leave them out entirely or move them over to help the composition or use different colors or change the contrast to alter the mood or add a more interesting sky. An artist doesn’t need to be a slave to either the scene or a reference photo. This has been the hardest lesson for me to learn coming as I do from a long history of taking photographs. Finally is artist’s skill. I didn’t draw the building very accurately and I didn’t capture the true contrast of the scene. But what the hey, it’s just a sketch and it was fun to do.
Jim
