Mt. Vernon Workshop Update

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MtVernon2

For more information on the one-day workshop Gail Wong and I will be offering in Mt. http://glwsketchworks.blogspot.com/p/workshops-and-events.htmlVernon, Washington, please see: <http://glwsketchworks.blogspot.com/p/workshops-and-events.html>.

I should note that Gail and I will also be offering a workshop here in Seattle May 17–19, beginning with a pizza dinner and presentation on Friday evening, followed by two sessions on Saturday and a closing session on Sunday with the Seattle Urban Sketchers group. More details to follow.

Composing the Image II

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Once we have decided on the subject matter for a sketch and established a particular point of view, we should pay attention to the proportions of the conceived image. Some images may lend themselves to a square or nearly square format, others a vertical composition, and still others a horizontal layout.

BathAbbey Immaculata

GreatWall

At times, the nature of the image we are trying to capture can be odds with the proportions of the pages in our sketchbook. We shouldn’t allow this conflict to alter our intentions. In my next post, I will try to address the question of how to compose the image on the page.

Composing the Image

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A question that is often asked is: How do I start a drawing? Where do I start? The very first step, before even touching pen to paper, is selecting the subject matter and mentally composing the image—deciding what will be included and what excluded from the scene before us. Will we zoom in on a part of a building, capture one of its interior spaces, or focus on one of its details? Do we see the building merely as an object? Will we try to place a building in its context? Or will we try to capture the life of a street or square with the architecture serving as a container or backdrop?

Fragment

• Fragments

Interior

• Interior space

Object

• Building as object

Context

• Buildings in context

Life

• The life of an urban space

Mt. Vernon Workshop

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MtVernon

I did this sketch to help publicize a one-day workshop Gail Wong and I will be offering in Mt. Vernon on Saturday, April 20th. Mt. Vernon is an enchanting small town in Skagit County north of Seattle and the Mt. Vernon Downtown Association is hosting the event.

Full disclosure: Due to constraints of time and weather I drew this scene from a digital photograph that was sent to me. I soon realized that drawing from a photo can actually be more difficult than drawing on location. In a 3D environment, we are able to perceive much more than in a 2D photograph. We can shift our gaze, if necessary, to uncover certain details or to see more clearly things that might be hidden or obscured. And we are free to interpret the 3-dimensional information before us. But in a photograph, everything is frozen, including ambiguities that have to be resolved.

Another note: The Namiki Falcon fountain pen is known for its flexible nib. While it is a joy to draw with, I rarely carry the pen for fear of losing it. But since I was in my home office, I took the opportunity to use it for this sketch. The Namiki Falcon is not inexpensive but still it is a reasonably priced introduction to fine quality fountain pens. Highly recommended.

Black-and-White

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Even though it’s a typically chilly and rainy winter in Seattle, what better time to study the branch structure of trees. For these stark, black-and-white images, I used a Tombow brush pen.

Trees1Trees2Trees3

While I could have relied on my memory or imagination to draw these, I find that the raw material provided by real-life patterns have a specificity that is more compelling than the stereotypical views that we store in our memory bank, and they are much easier to compose and interpret.

Serial Vision

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The converging lines and foreshortened shapes of a perspective drawing give it a dynamic quality. Yet, it remains a static view—a moment in time—as seen from a single point in space. To better convey movement through space, we can use a series of changing perspective views, as English architect and urban designer Gordon Cullen did when he coined the phrase Serial Vision to describe what one might see and experience as one walks through a sequence of spaces.

This is what I intended to depict when the Seattle Urban Sketchers met yesterday at Suzzallo Library on the UW campus. These drawings chronicle how one approaches the library from across Red Square, enters one of its portals, moves through the lobby and up the main staircase, and arrives in the main reading room.

Suzzallo1

Suzzallo2

Suzzallo3

Suzzallo4

Suzzallo5

Suzzallo6

Nine drawings done in two hours and twenty-five minutes.

 

A Delicate Balance

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Balance

As we decide how we are going to compose a scene and lay it out on a page, we are juggling drawing elements to maintain a delicate balance between a static state and one of dynamic disarray. The elements that we balance are points of interest that draw the eye—an area of contrasting tone or increased line weights, a level of enhanced detail, even a field of emptiness. Here are a few examples of different ways of maintaining a delicate balance in a drawing composition.

Balance5

When we want to emphasize the stability or serenity of the subject matter, we can use a symmetrical layout and still introduce visual tension through contrast.

Balance

For more dynamic compositions, we can offset one or more points of interest in an asymmetrical composition that leads the eye. We can emphasize height by raising the composition on the page or lead the eye by placing the central point of interest to the left or the right.

Balance2

In the end, what we should strive for is a delicate balance that engages the eye and never lets it stray off the page.

 

Caricatures

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FDKC_Composite

A caricature is a pictorial or literary description of a person or thing that exaggerates certain distinctive characteristics to create an easily identifiable likeness. The result can be insulting or complimentary; I certainly hope these caricatures of me are the latter! These were done and graciously given to me by various individuals during presentations and workshops that I have given.

SeattleJurors

While these are definitely not intended to be caricatures, they still represent my attempt to capture the likeness of individuals, which is always an enjoyable and constant challenge. I used my iPad to draw these prospective jurors in the King County courthouse. It helped that these people were sedentary, lost in their own thoughts while waiting to be called for jury duty.

Shibuya

To draw people who are moving is much more difficult, as in this view of a rainy morning in Shibuya, Tokyo. These commuters and their umbrellas provide a sense of scale to the composition and lead the eye across the overpass while the automobile traffic flows below.

Seeing Little Things Largely

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Ginkgo

This study of the uniquely shaped leaves of the ginkgo tree, considered to be a living fossil, requires careful observation of shapes, details, and most importantly, the relationships between the two. In Lingua Franca, a column in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Geoffrey Pullum ends his essay with a quote from Otto Jespersen, a Danish linguist who specialized in the grammar of the English language:

“To anyone who finds that linguistic study is a worthless finicking with trifles, I would reply that life consists of little things; the important matter is to see them largely.”

2013: A Year of Changes

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Approaching the big Seven-O, moving from Ballard back to the Fremont neighborhood, adding a new title to my list of publications, teaching in Rome in the fall. I hope everyone’s New Year will be fulfilling as we respond to necessities, take advantage of opportunities as they arise, and prepare diligently always!