Additional and final black and white sketches

Here are simply some progress sketches of the last black and white sketch

as seen, first just the outline across the board is laid out, and then the most dramatic scene to me (the place where the flame is consuming London and sending dark stuff through the ether - early on I realized in this sketch that for some reason I cropped like an inch off the left - so I had to just go with it

The second sketch begins adding more details on the boat and in the castle - also some of the people at the end are being added

in this one I'm adding more of the people on the lower left, adding details and darkness/contrast overall to the river and to the boats in the centre - I think here's where I began with an error in the castle area - in all my sketches so far I have had trouble calibrating elements in the castle

here we see more details emerging throughout the picture, more darks & lights, etc - also the error along the castle (I keep calling it a castle but it's really the parliament building) became solidified, so I had to simply go with it, once again. This is after all the sketching phase. Also finished the people on the right.

This is technically finished, but I am not liking how there are parts of it that are too stark, so I added graphite and blended in the smoke cloud.

Overall not happy with the dark of the sky but I think it's still an improvement over the 2nd sketch I did where I overdid everything

this is how far I will take it now. As I said, the left inch is gone, the sky is to heavy, and obviously I didn't finish the right edge in a finished way, and also the Parliament needs to be improved, but as I said I feel like this is as far as it needs to go

For contrast, I am posting the previous sketch to compare:

and then the other one:

next time I will bring colour into the mix

Some re artistic process and some re new sketch & random news

It only took me 2 weeks to put up a new sketch! Here it is, it is more black & white

the interesting thing about thsi sketch is that it is way too dark for the simple reason that I am utilizing a medium I am very unfamiliar with: watercolour pencil. I'm not that great with watercolour, period, and I used too much pigment. I mean, I was trying to go for more contrast than I did in the other sketch, but went way the other way. Also fudged the proportions a bit, but thats what this process is for. to get all the bad ideas out of the way!

One reason for my delay in painting is purely practical: I am still needing to find my art supplies from the time of the fire. After we signed the lease thru March on our new dwelling, we have had to spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with our stuff in storage, and the main issue has been, where are my paints? I have basically $1,000 worth of art supplies (esp. for oil and wood prep) in the storage unit, and I've been waiting to find them. Meanwhile I purchased these nice pencils.

The next step in terms of art process is to add colour. THat's what we use the pencils for as well. I am to make one or two more black and white, one or 2 more colour, and by then I trust we will have moved on to the 3rd step which will be painting on the wood panel itself. Jim prep process will be part of that as well as, most importantly, finding the paints.

By then the sketching will have taken me to the place I want to be, which is similar to the place that a musician or an actor wants to be when they are finally at curtain time, after having rehearsed for ages. I come from a primarily musical background, transitioning towards art in high school. What I have gotten from the musical process is a multi sketch method whereby I rehearse in advance what I want to lay out - different ideas, different force, different perspectives, or proportions, even, and then the final result is supposed to be the best characterization of all those things.

which of these boxes contains my paints?

The storage business gives me a reason to be forced to stay away from painting so soon.

THe summer allows for sketching in nature, suck as this video indicates:

This other video, taken near the Pigeon River in a lovely watering hole, shows Jim's wood gathering process, something else that occurs on these walks, making them both a huge part of myTurner art process and the Marshll Arts process I had described in the past.

Sadly, not all works out so well, and yesterday, this happened at most an hour after the above reasonably happy videos:

As can be seen from the above videos, the place is lovely but there's lots of room for error. In ten years running around through the Western North Carolina woods, this is the first time this happens to me. I fell bizarrely as I was hopping from rock to rock and slipped on one that was more wet than it appeared.

So if this post sounds disjointed and weird, it is because I am suffering physically and to an extent mentally due to the lack of caffeine since I hear that helps the fractured bone process.

Not for that do I believe that the painting project is compromised - blessedly it is a small canvas.

Hope all can manage to stay safe!

travelling & initial sketch

I just wanted to share an update re/ the awesome painting project I have received. One reason I had waited till now to do this was typical holiday things, where we ended up going to many lovely places:

Blue Ridge Parkway!

We have been camping for the 4th of July and other occassions, taking advantage of the lovely summer, and the fact that all the art selling from the past 3 years, which we have now transitioned out of, has ceased, allowing us to travel again and enjoy the nature which in large part inspired the Turner Project to begin with.

This inspiring vista comes from Whitewater Falls at Nantahala National Forest, on the edge of Jackson and Transylvania Counties. 

The place Jim's standing on top of in this picture is the very very top of this amazing place: 

via Jordan Luff on Facebook

But now, it is time to work, especially since I will finally have access to my painting supplies in about a week! Am very excited yet trepidations to unpack all our stuff from the fire storage unit where our things have been hiding for a long while.

In any event, here is an initial sketch - I will do a number of these in differing media so that I can feel confident re. technique and so that then I can focus on creating as expressive and overall awesome piece as I can.

The initial sketch phase is black and white, so as to get tonalities. What you do there is look at different parts of the painting as discrete shapes and blobs, and you sort of make yourself lose sight of a bridge, a flame, water, etc. You do this so that

a) you don't get stuck playing a proportions game you can never win
b) you do it so as to begin to approach a sense of 3 dimensionality - sometimes hard to achieve when you are working from a flat 2D surface as opposed to plein air
c) you want to aid your colour mixture when the time comes to add it in by working out values & hues independently of
d) it's a warm up! very necessary
e) it allows a different more creative way of looking at things

So here it is, and I think it went quite well - I succeeded in doing it in one sitting:

so here I can see what works, what needs help, etc.

I plan to do at least one more black white, and then colour like this in pencil with a pad before the time comes to really do it.

I am very excited to have a chance to be this methodical about it! The 90 Days project was so very fast that I had no time to really sit with a piece, get to know it, read up on it, etc. This allows a vertical v. horizontal immersion in the Realm of Turner.