learning from sketching

There's lots to learn from making a sketch from life:
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1. understand values and how they play together!
2. how to simplify a complex scene
3. composition

SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO THINK ABOUT:
How light is this element compared to that (there's that relationship thing coming up again!)?
How do I make something look like it's far away?
What makes an object stand out from another?
Most often it's value - dark against light and light against dark!
But just as important, it's all the values in between!! You'll only get this from observing and sketching!!

practice practice practice - repeat repeat repeat - study your subject properly

Nothing worse than a bad photo - except this is where you will learn to paint better and faster.

2 solutions:

1. go for a wander and have a look yourself, take many photos and sketch
2. make it up

The sketching part is where you will make discoveries:

1. what is most important to you? what are you excited about? a window, a sign, a person/s
2. how to make that element stand out the most, possibly with values, colour temperature or high chroma - maybe all 3

Raglan Roast Office full lesson here

FROM AN EARLIER LESSON:

this one's all about relationships
while I was sketching and observing, I was asking myself:

• where is the light source?
  what shapes are the lightest value?
  what shapes are the middle values?
  what are the darks?
  
  
• where is my focal area? what am I most interested in?
  what can I use to point my viewers eye to the focal area?
  what distracting features are there?
  
  
• what do I need to know about the shapes?
  what elements can I use to help me with perspective ?
  how high is this compared to that?
  what shapes can overlap and interlock?

​cheers