FORM

Happy spring!  Yes, I know.  There's still a lot of snow on the ground and, for some parts of New England, more snow is coming tomorrow evening (I feel your pain, Kelsey!).  However, so many signs of spring have predictably begun right on time.  In my neighborhood the cardinals began singing bright and clear in the early morning about five weeks ago.  Chickadees followed soon thereafter and this morning I heard the drilling of woodpeckers as I left the house.  Can't see anything coming up from the ground yet but soon...

At the start if 2015 I decided that FORM was to be my focus this year.  I've been practicing shapes and proportions for so long that it seems almost second nature to me now.  Form is the next skill to master.  In my last lesson with Barry Van Dusen we practiced capturing form with quick gestural lines, finding the angle of the bird first then building the lines around that.  In the sketch above you can see how it works well for not only birds perched at a side view but especially well for the foreshortened view.  As a part of capturing form it is incredibly helpful to understand what the animal's structure is like underneath feathers, skin and muscle.  The page above represents about twenty minutes of work.  One could easily practice this each day.  Imagine what that could do for developing a sharp and quick eye!

Spring classes are coming up!  Please sign up for my newsletter to learn about my sketching and painting classes.  You can sign up on my website's homepage, bottom right.  I am so happy to get back outside with my sketchbook, paints and brushes soon after such a long winter of impossible weather!  Maybe our paths will cross...