Thursday, August 28, 2008

Accent Color

You can spice up a black and white sketch with a little dash of color. It’s just like sprinkling adobo on a bowl of beans.


When I sat across the street from this corner market in Rincon, Puerto Rico, I worked up the sketch in pencil and gray ink wash. I enjoyed trying to suggest the abstract detail seen through the window. But the sketch needed something to perk it up.

I dug down in one of the pockets and found a yellow marker for the fire hydrant and the “escuela” sign.

If you carry a red or yellow colored pencil or marker along with the rest of your sketch set-up, it just might come in handy for a spicy little accent.
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More on the "line and wash" technique, link

4 comments:

Super Villain said...

this comment is a bit off topic but...

i was going though some of my art today and i found many many paintings or sketches that were supposed to be paintings that were never finished.

i was wondering how many paintings or sketches have you started that were supposed to be finished paitnings but never became finished paintings...? i would love to see a future post on unfinished paintings and some photos of your unfinished work...

keep up the great blog!

Susan's Scribbles said...

Such a simple point but it added so much! Thanks for taking the time to share your wisdom with us!

James Gurney said...

Super Wu: I end up finishing--or maybe overworking--most of my studio pieces, but some of them are duds and have to be repainted.

Plenty of plein air studies are unfinished due to rain or the subject changing in some way. They're just studies, so finish doesn't matter, but if they study has no use to me for future reference, I'll just reprime it and use it again, or else put it in the "Gallery Flambeau."

Thanks for you generous compliments, Susan.

Unknown said...

Wonderful sketch, and you are right, just that little bit of color really livened it up. Thanks for sharing.