Sketchbook

Constructing a Painting

Ideas for paintings come from anywhere: a magazine, a public event, a newspaper, anyplace. Whenever something clicks, I make notes or sketch with watercolors in my book. It isn't fancy. It's just an idea book, a record.

Walking is indispensable. James Michener was an inveterate walker who thought out ideas for stories during his walks. I guess I didn't originate the concept. I like hiking with companions, but ideas don't come like they do when I'm alone with my thoughts. I like to workout, too, weight training, etc. For a while, I used a treadmill in a health club instead of walking in the hills. Then I started walking outside again and realized how much I missed the trails and smell of the woods. And my dog, Steve, can't go into a health club. Excuse my rambling.

When I made this sketch (above), I was on a ridge on the flank of Mt. Tamalpais, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was autumn and I wanted it to look like autumn. I used a Sharpie fine-point pen and some cheap Prang watercolors, the kind kids use in elementary school. They're easy to deal with and fit nicely in a small knapsack. The sketch became the composition for the painting "Coast Trail Sunset." I made the painting almost exactly the way I'd sketched it. All I had to do was decide on the support (that's an artist word meaning the substance you paint on) and the medium. In this case, the support was illustration board (a paper product) and the medium oil paint.

I prepared the surface by laying in the composition with acrylic paints, which dry quickly and seal the paper so the oil paints don't penetrate it. I wanted an expressionist kind of painting. That meant bold color, thick paint and pronounced brush strokes. Here is the finished painting (click on the image for a closer look).

"Coast Trail Sunset" went together as easy as 1, 2, 3, but it doesn't always work out that way. So I don't always follow the same process. Sometimes my original sketch is only a very rough idea about what I want in a final painting. If a painting includes people, I may draw them individually, make paper cut-outs, and then move the cut-outs around until I find the composition I want. In other words, I don't stick to any set formula to get what I want. When you're first learning to paint it's probably smart to stick to a set formula. Then, gradually, you learn what maneuvers work best for you and develop a personal bag of tricks. I use cut-outs, photographs, things I've clipped from magazines, something I've doodled on a napkin, anything that gets me where I want to go.

I had a terrific teacher, Kent Rupp, who said to look for the basic shapes in a subject and think of them only as shapes. That sounds simple enough, but, really, it's a big deal. Once you learn to think that way you've made a giant step forward. Sometimes Kent would have us paint with a canvas upside down or on it's side. Now that really forces you to look at shapes, instead of getting caught up in self-defeating details. I still do it sometimes. Another thing is music. When I've got the right music going, my mental editors shut down. I become more intuitive. Sometimes I'll turn a painting upside down and crank up Dave Brubeck so loud the walls vibrate. Shazam! Automatic pilot. Poor Steve slips out through the pet door to escape the strange behavior. Crazy artists!

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