3 Materials Challenge: Day 4
For today’s sketch, I chose a photo Donald forwarded to me this morning. It’s one of a series of photos his sister, Ingela, took of places around his mother’s home in Sweden. Lots of snow! This particular photo looks out over Lake Vänern—Sweden’s largest lake, and the third largest in all of Europe.
Of course, this isn’t an exact copy of the photo. I simplified it and didn’t worry about getting shapes to scale:
Because it’s a cold scene, I thought I’d go for all blues. I used a blue Ohuhu marker with dual tips (brush and fineliner) and a color pencil (Kalour, blue, C079).
I’d planned to use the Decorating Chalk I wrote about yesterday, too—one of the blues in the palette. I thought I’d use it for the sky and possibly in the snowy foreground. However, after I’d put in the marker and pencil, it felt like what I really needed was some white to help the trees stand out where they intersect with the blues in the background, so I used a fine-tipped white acrylic paint pen instead.
The white did help (and I added a few touches to the water, as well, to break it up with the indication of reflections), but it’s still not my favorite sketch. I think maybe monochrome wasn’t a good choice. At least I should’ve chosen two blues with a greater contrast in value. At least I’m learning something!
