Open air sketching

 

Gas station at Järvenpää. Watercolor on sketchbook.

Watercolor on sketchbook. My brother and I went open air sketching at Ainola, the home of the national composer Jean Sibelius. The importance of observational drawing and painting from nature cannot be emphasized enough.

Thumbnail sketches at Itäkeskus,  Kellokoski, Jokela and Purola. A bit rough but it's all about the experience, keeping the skills up and recording color scemes for possible later assignments.

Field sketching

 

Kids at local mall. At Pekka Halonen academy we were encouraged to go to sketch at malls and other public places every now and then as drawing moving people enhances the ability to draw from both observation and memory.

Landscape paintings may not be interesting as works of art, but the process of trying to capture the colors to scientific accuracy is what makes it challenging and compelling. It helps to understand how light and color function in nature.

Midsummer glimpses

While on a trip to summer cottage during Midsummer, I painted some quick impressions of the landscapes that went by. Watercolor on sketchbook.

Rubens study

An acrylic study of Peter Paul Rubens' selfportrait with his wife Isabella, detail, rearrangement focused on faces. I read that Rubens usually had a silver gray underpainting on which he drew the outlines with burnt sienna. The rest is typical Flemish layer painting technique. I wanted to understand his trademark use of lush, vibrant colors which he is famous for.

I also now understand better why the masters seldom showed unfinished pieces to anyone except for other artists because until the final detailing stage the painting usually looks pretty dreadful, and people may not understand the process. And because the faces are center of focus they need  lots of work hours to paint until they look correct which is crucial for the painting's success.

Excavator

Watercolor sketch, plein air.

Plein air sketches

 

 Some plein air studies on watercolor sketchbook. Jean Leon Gérôme said to his students that one must paint observational studies every day to learn to mix colors as accurately as possible.

  

Doodles

 

oil pastel sketches

Animal sketches

Random animal sketches. Ink and watercolor on moleskine sketchbook.

Face sketches

"Head is the most important part of the body, so practice it as much as possible," said a pro artist in Imagine FX mag. Here's selected pages of water color, acrylic and even oil on heavy paper sketchbook. Most are from imagination, with the exception of the first one which I drew after seeing interesting eyes in some photo. I try to write notes and draw arrows to point out less successful details so that I can avoid them later.