Sketch to final drawing

Sketching can be as complicated as you want to make it.

Firstly, find the idea OR you may have the subject in front of you.

Next, put pencil to paper,

and when you are happy with it,

start to add paint.

Ending up with a piece of art that could either be Sold OR mostly with sketching, 

just saved and shared online.

The point I'm getting to is,  keep drawing and painting -

your hand/eye co-ordination will improve immensely over time.

Starting a sketch

Sketching a subject that may seem complicated,

can actually be split down into simple lines.

As with this painting of William in the sea.

Here's my initial outline, I kept it Simple

then outlined William with ink pen

and then added watercolour

As you see, it is a simple sketch.

With the sea, I put on one layer of watercolour and waited for that to dry,

then added a slightly darker tone - again waited for that to dry 

and finally a few dabs of much darker blue.

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Stop and sketch

I had a little time to spare in town the other day, so decided to stop for  coffee.  That gave me a chance to OBSERVE people...and get some quick sketches done.  Certainly focuses the hand eye co-ordination when people constantly move AND move quickly.  You just have to go for it.  If you don't achieve the sketch, then be happy with what you have on paper, but try to REMEMBER  the person, then very often you can complete the sketch.

My sketch below was just the initial outline, enough information on shape and angle.  As the two people I had decided to capture, were still at their table, it gave me time to put in more detail.

However, if they had moved away, my initial sketch was enough for me to go from that and get at least something reasonable.

So with the extra detail - then watercolour added when I got home - here's my completed drawing 

Where I originally put the first figures, is where they remained, I built up the rest of the sketch from them.

🎨 🎨 🎨

Sketching - bring a sketch together

Days out give me the chance to do lots of sketching.  At this time of year that often means sitting in the car, but I'm not complaining.  Sat with my sketchbook, pens, paints and a cup of coffee to drink is my idea of bliss.

Here I've done a quick sketch whilst we stopped at a retail park (yes more shopping).

There's a bit of a lesson in this sketch.  The various areas > hills > houses > cars are tending to all be Separate  -  whereas the overall drawing would look better if the areas merged a bit.  So I addressed this issue by adding watercolour to the evergreen tree - it know brings together the hills in the background plus the car below it.  I felt this was enough, sometimes overworking can spoil a piece...it's good to have spaces too.

It only needed a little subtle change to bring the drawing together.