In a previous post Why Draw? I discussed all the practical ways in which drawing can make you a better landscape painter—encouraging editing and design of elements in your scene, sensitivity to perspective and other drawing issues of scale and proportion, and as a means of simplification. And while these things are reason enough to […]
Visual Thinking
Recently a friend of mine who is a writer said to me “writing is thinking.” What she meant is that as we write we often discover the internal structure of what was previously a collection of random ideas and as a result locate the real intention of our work through the act of doing it. The […]
Why Draw?
Why Draw? Often landscape painters don’t think drawing is important. I am always amazed in my workshops and classes at the number of students who do not regularly use a sketchbook or include drawing as part of their art making process. I was fortunate that the first artist I seriously studied with- Ned Jacob- […]
Go First To Nature
Spring will soon be here and the plein air season will stretch out before us with tantalizing visions of days spent in the field painting nature. Unfortunately for many, the reality never quite matches up to our hopes and expectations. We come home tired, frustrated and disappointed in the day’s efforts. Why? Because painting outdoors […]
Variety- Intervals and Shapes
Nature has infinite variety. Yet the more you observe it and learn about it, you see there are “rules” which govern the seemingly chaotic look of things. For example, trees in general grow in a certain way, which will vary from species to species. But, the idea of “taper” (that is, the gradual diminution in […]
Exploring Charcoal
This is a guest post by Rob Wellings, artist and teaching assistant with The Landscape Atelier. Rob and I will be teach a new online class – Drawing the Landscape in Charcoal -in June, and I want to introduce readers of Field Notes to his work. Charcoal is a great medium for exploring artistic possibilities. […]