Learning from the Sketch

I like to draw a house before I paint it, to get familiar with its lines. When I get just one photo to paint from, as I did here, I just go ahead and sketch in acrylic paint. Then I can learn what I want to do about color and value, as well as the lines. I did my first sketch for this painting on a green background, laying in the lighter and darker values over the middle tone.

 

  The color scheme pleased me but when I looked at this, I saw that the right roof peak was way too high -- it should be at about the same height as the far left peak.

And that meant that whole right side was too large. One of the things I love about drawing with acrylic paint is that it doesn't take nearly as long to dry as oils. So my next step was to begin correcting that right side, as you see here.

Now if I were sketching for a larger painting, I'd probably be satisfied with the corrected sketch. Then I'd use it as my primary reference for the painting, along with the original photo I was given.

In this case, once I had a good sketch, I kept on painting. Because this customer purchased a portrait the size I usually sketch, which fits nicely into a ready made 11 x 14" frame with a matte and glass.

So here it is as finished this morning. Digital photography is great, especially with a SmartPhone. You always have your camera handy (mine's on a holster on my hip!) And I can print out any of these versions to learn or compare. In fact, if the customer likes an earlier version better, we could actually print it out to canvas, varnish it, and this giclee (French word for airbrush) could be framed just like an original painting.