Sketching And Drawing | Idle Minutes

Category Archives: Sketching and Drawing

Colle Alta, Tuscany, Italy

15-Aug-07

Painting scenes from Italy is altogether fun. Not only is Italy full of intact, ancient buildings, it is that very aspect that makes it scenic. The thing I like most is the variations in the blocks, forms and angles of the buildings and roof lines. Everything seems to simply follow the existing terrain. A novel idea, eh?

This scene is of a place called Colle Alta. At this early point in my journey into sketching and painting scenes from Italy, I’m not going to pretend to be in tune with Italy, or that I’m some hip, seasoned traveler, in the know about all things Italian. Heck, I’ve never been there. I do eat a lot of pizza though. And I grew up happily listening to Dean Martin on the record player. So I’m just going to learn about the places I paint, and enjoy painting them, and imagine what it would be like to be there. One day I’ll go, and then I’ll be hip, and justifiably travel snobby if I so choose.

So dear reader, let’s have a tiny geography lesson shall we?

Colle Alta is the well preserved medieval center of a town of 20,000+ called Colle di Val d’Elsa. This means “Hills of Elsa Valley”, Elsa being the river that passes through the valley. The town is located in Tuscany, in the province of Siena. Perhaps one of the most beautiful parts of Italy. Certainly from the viewpoint of an artist.

Colle Alta is in the upper part of the town and is the oldest part. Have you ever heard the phrase “so and so is as old as dirt”? Well dating from the 9th century AD, this town qualifies. When I hear that phrase, my mind always conjures up an ancient scene like this.

Most people agree it is a real treat to tromp around such a place and experience the ancient-ness of it. I would certainly be one of those people. One day I will likely do that. In the mean time though, I simply look at the skyline of the Blue Ridge Mountains when I’m tooling around in North Georgia and remember that Mother Earth Herself is so dang old it isn’t funny. I marvel at the ancient geology right here at home and try to make sense of it…much like I marvel at the idea that this man made town in Italy is still intact after so very, very long.

It’s a wonderful thing that which is ancient…all of it…here or there.

If you get a wild hair to own some Idle Minutes art…
This painting is being auctioned on eBay

Also filed in Building details, Landmarks, Landscapes, Postcard Art, Stories, Travel Sketches | | Comments (0) »

Tuscany Beach

10-Aug-07

Sometimes we go to the beach for a quick vacation. We did that last week. The beach we visited was nice, on Hunting Island, SC.

Unfortunately, I was at a total loss for being able to sketch. Sometimes I just “lose it”. No desire to sketch…or do much of anything. The stuff I was seeing at the beach was uninteresting to me and thus I figured none of it would make for interesting sketches or stories to anybody reading Idle Minutes.

So, I sketched nothing while at the beach. I did take some photos. Perhaps I’ll review them and see if the camera saw anything interesting…sometimes it does while I don’t.

Anyway, in lieu of sketches from Hunting Island, here’s a beach scene from Italy. I know. You’re thinking “huh? from coastal South Carolina to Italy? How odd. What gives Mr. Don?

Well, click back through the last few posts and it will become self evident.

I’ll be back on track with vacation sketches at the end of the month and some stuff between now and then. We’re taking a short trip again to Maine. Surely, oh surely! my mind’s eye will become interested in sketching in Maine.

Also filed in ACEO Art Cards, Landscapes, Nature | | Comments (4) »

Tuscany Rooflines

09-Aug-07

Have you ever been to Italy? Or as some of us here in the South have been known to pronounce it, “It’ly”.

I haven’t.

My dear wife has been invited by some friends (these are friends of mine as well) to join them on a trip there in November. I will be sending her off with specific photographic assignments so that I may create some sketches upon her return.

Some day I’ll go there myself I suppose. Who knows? If I do, it will have to be with a group so that my wife can stay with them while I venture off and sit for hours sketching.

Until then, I will have to sketch from reference photos, taking little pieces of them and creating sketches of my own as I’ve done here.

You see, I like sketching architecture and scenes with interesting buildings and groupings of buildings in them. Unfortunately, where I live, there are no poppy fields or buildings that are centuries old. Thus I’m left to work from photos of such places.

My environment is Southern American Suburbia and its architecture changes in the blink of an eye it seems. Not only that, it’s all built for a temporary stay of say 50 years on this earth at most. The Omni, a sports arena built here in Atlanta, where Elvis last performed in Atlanta, lasted about 30 years and was demolished. Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, where Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record, lasted about 30 years and was demolished as well. Both demolished to build new sports arenas. Go figure!

Add to that the inherent “fake-ness” of the designs and building methods and you have something that makes for a “why bother” syndrome for an artist.

I’ll have to overcome that. I’ve considered simply sketching it, Suburbia that is, in all its glorious boredom and fakery, and making that a theme. I may yet do so. But for now I’m just not seeing Suburbia’s intrinsic value for the subject of a sketch, painting, or drawing.

So, here is some “It’ly” for you instead. More It’ly to come.

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Trout Live Here

31-Jul-07

If you’ve ever done any Trout fishing, then you know two things:

They live, among other places, in cool mountain streams.
They hover in the flow of the water below “chutes”, like that depicted here, and feed.

Now granted, they also feed in other places in a stream. But if there are Trout in a cool mountain stream, and they are hungry, you will most certainly find a few of them facing upstream, hovering in the flow, just below a roiling little drop in the terrain of a stream like you see here.

Why is that Mr. Don, world famous Trout fisherman that you are?

Well, thank you for asking…ahem…it’s because bugs fall out of trees, or otherwise end up in the stream (some of them begin life in the stream), and flow toward these little places where the water is directed into tighter quarters by rocks, boulders, or other debris. Thus, these chutes of water are where lots of bugs get concentrated together as they pass downstream.

Trout eat bugs. That is all they eat. (Well, they will eat…uh…er…dare I say it…”niblets” corn from a can if they are farm raised Trout. But no self respecting, expensive equipment toting Trout fisherman will take advantage of that with anyone in sight. So for the sake of my answer here, bugs are all they eat.)

So Trout, being lazy, simply wait hovering in the water, facing upstream, in the tailraces of these chutes for their food to be delivered to them by Mother Nature. And of course this is one of those places where the sneaky angler chooses to drop a fake bug, attached to some overly expensive and technical paraphernalia, in the hopes of fooling said Trout into choosing his fake bug for a snack.

If you’ve fished for Trout you might also know a couple other things:

It’s not necessarily about catching trout…in fact, catching one is a bonus…or toting expensive gear into the wilderness.

As such, you become aware that Trout live in some pretty nice digs. Really beautiful homes these Trout have established. They have Martha Stewart quite whipped and whimpering regarding outdoor decorating and entertaining. Rather surprising for a Trout, eh?

And so, naturally, you visit time and again. Eventually, you even begin to ignore the Trout, leave the fishing gear in the truck, and simply explore, see, notice, and enjoy the places where they live.

You might do this reluctantly at first, questioning whether you are losing touch with your inner woodsman. You know, that inner part of you that says “You go into the woods to catch something or shoot something and eat it, or maybe just catch it and put it back. That’s why you bought all that stuff and that’s why you go into the woods. There’s no other reason to go. Get a grip man!”

But you come to find, that indeed, nothing is wrong with you. There’s no reason to question whether you’re still a “man’s man” just because you are feeling inclined to sit by the stream and take it in…with no “gear”. You simply have discovered another way to enjoy the great outdoors and it’s as fine and sportsman like as throwing a line in the water.

Also filed in Landscapes, Nature, Sportsman Art, Stories | | Comments (2) »

30 minute experiment

26-Jul-07

I’m reading a new book called “Watercolor Plus…” which has a good section in it on pen and ink with watercolor washes.

The artist, John Hoar, drew and painted this scene as a demo. I’ve not adhered to the demo at all really. I was simply experimenting with the looser style he uses.

I like looseness but it has been a bit elusive for me to “get it” in my mind’s eye. So, I’ll concentrate on it for a while. It’s faster and I’ve always liked the idea of letting the viewer’s mind complete that which is but a suggestion of reality. It makes it more interesting for them I think.

One unusual thing John does is use a whittled match stick shoved into a bamboo stick for his “pen”. He dips it in Indian Ink and draws the image with it. It forces a loose drawing.

Think about it…It’s pretty dang hard to draw a “tight” drawing with a whittled match stick shoved into a piece of bamboo and dipped into a bottle of ink. It’s sort of like painting your toenails with a whisk broom. (Not that I paint my toenails mind you.) I think this is a big key to his style. (BTW, if I did paint my toenails, which I don’t, they wouldn’t be black. But that’s a subject for a future post.)

I try to steer clear of utilizing cumbersome means toward achieving a drawing or painting or sketch, so I used a Micron “brush” pen instead. It’s a trade-off. Convenience for a slightly less “loosy” drawing. I just don’t want to become attached to some technique that isn’t practical for sketching or drawing in the car or in the field. Think spilled Indian Ink on automobile seats of Fine Corinthian Leather.

So, I’m hoping to coerce the Micron brush pen to achieve similar results with some practice.

John also uses half size watercolor sheets for his paintings…which for me is another “not so practical for the field” choice…though he does do “in the field” paintings with these tools.

Some folk like to tote along a bunch of stuff like that and do their painting thing. The attention doesn’t bother them. I like to tote as little as possible. I like it all in a fanny pack. I like being discreet when sketching in the field. When at home, hey, I may sketch in my underwear. But when in public, I’d just as soon not be noticed when I sketch. So I wear clothes…and use tools and media that are inconspicuous.

I did this on an 8×10 watercolor block I made up from Canson Montval watercolor paper. That’s about as big a sketch as I tend to tackle.

Which begs the question to my artist readers out there, have you noticed there are no 8×10 watercolor blocks or pads or sketchbooks on the market? What’s with that? Zillions of 8×10 frames in North America, no 8×10 watercolor media. Go figure. So I have to make my own.

But I digress…the book is great and the other artists in the book are top notch as is John Hoar. I’ll be re-reading and experimenting more with this style for a while now.

Also filed in Building details, Landscapes, Quick Sketches, Style | | Comments (6) »

Vickery Creek

13-May-07

Still gathering ideas for a series of oils, today I took a walk along Vickery Creek.

Vickery Creek is in Roswell Georgia and feeds the Chattahochee River. A mill was built there in the 1839, ruins of which still stand, to produce cotton goods. Now it has been developed into an area with trails and a new covered bridge over the creek.

The creek provides many subjects for sketching or painting. I’ll be going back this week most likely.

Be sure to click the images on this and the previous two posts to get a larger look at the sketch. Charcoal sketches lose a bit of detail as you reduce them.

Also filed in Landscapes, Nature | | Comments (12) »

Chattahoochee River Bank

12-May-07

I rented a kayak for the weekend and took a paddle down the Chattahoochee river this morning.

The reason? Sketching of course.

A most wonderful thing happened during this little trip. I discovered charcoal and a kneaded eraser. The two tools are great for sketching and they are fast too. Charcoal lets you get real darks, unlike graphite. And it lifts easily with the kneaded eraser.

This is just in time because I’m putting together a series of small oil paintings for presentation to a gallery here. I’ll be painting this one and I’ll post it when it’s done.

As for now, go rent yourself a kayak and paddle down a slow rolling river. You’ll be hooked. I guarantee it.

Also filed in Landscapes, Nature, Quick Sketches | | Comments (2) »