Monday, August 02, 2010

Slow Herring


Time has gotten away with me this week and there are lots of pieces waiting in my head to go onto paper.  Unfortunately having the available chunks of time to make a start on this is the challenge.

However, this herring is determined to make its presence known to me.  The sleek shape and amazing shine and colours in the fish keep pulling me back to it and giving me inspiration for different media and sizes.



I played around with this simple sketch of the fish in pen, blocking in shapes and values to get an idea of where I'm going with it.  I find more and more how preliminary studies of a subject help me problem solve and save me so much time on a full piece.  I know we often rush ahead, wanting to get into the 'meat' of the piece and sometimes then get stuck in composition or value or colour palette which can all be worked out in a small piece that often has a lot of merit as a painting or drawing in its own right.

1 comment:

Tracy Wall said...

I just love your little pen sketches. Just love the combination of organized cross hatch and loose free lines and squiggles. Beautiful!