Art 97: Making Shapes with Watercolor

A quick landscape in Minnesota

I filmed a few sketching sessions on a trip I took in July. I’ve been saving them to run over the next month, when I’ll be traveling again. This is kind of like having a substitute teacher who just shows you a filmstrip, only the substitute teacher is also me.

(If you know what a filmstrip is, it’s probably time to ask your doctor about a bone density scan. Also, let’s bring back filmstrips!)

So the idea with this one is that I did not try to define the shapes of the trees, hills, etc in this landscape by drawing the edges of them. In other words, I did not outline all the shapes. I just used the pen for the darkest areas, usually the tree trunks and other shapes low to the ground and in shadow.

Then I used watercolor to define the edges of the trees and the landscape.

This is a neat trick to try in a landscape, and also in a city: don’t draw the outline of the building! Just draw the doors, windows, other features, and define the shape of the building with paint.

Also, I used a light gre…