...are about as rare as hen's teeth. We've had days and days of wet weather for the last week or more. We finally had a reprieve yesterday and was it ever fabulous! The temperature dropped and even better the humidity dropped to make it a fantastic day.
Breezy, cool and low humidity is a Floridian's idea of a perfect day. Chris and I decided to have lunch at one our favorite places to eat, a little Greek taverna so we could sit outside and enjoy the weather.
Huge cypress trees in big, big olive-style pots sit around the area as a privacy screen and wind break.
The cypress in the sketch above sat close to the front door and made for the perfect opportunity to sketch as I love the mellow colors of the bricks behind it. I sketched a bird nest from the same place in this post.
Have you ever seen a green brick before that wasn't painted? Probably not. But if you look at the bricks above, I have a few. This is called embellishing, it's one of the "5 E's System" I teach in the Imaginary Trip classes to help artists learn to sketch on location.
Embellish means just that—to embellish what you see with colors that may not be there or may not be very obvious. Embellishing can be subtle or quite obvious depending on what the art calls for.
When we rely on photos for the majority of our sketching references, we sometimes forget that a camera is limited in the colors it can "see," versus what our eyes and more importantly, our imaginations, can see.
Try adding some "extra" pop to your work by embellishing with some unexpected color and see what you think. Let me know how it goes!
Breezy, cool and low humidity is a Floridian's idea of a perfect day. Chris and I decided to have lunch at one our favorite places to eat, a little Greek taverna so we could sit outside and enjoy the weather.
Huge cypress trees in big, big olive-style pots sit around the area as a privacy screen and wind break.
 |
| Acropolis Greek Taverna Cypress Watercolor and Ink Stillman & Birn Beta Sketchbook 5.5 x 8.5 inches |
Have you ever seen a green brick before that wasn't painted? Probably not. But if you look at the bricks above, I have a few. This is called embellishing, it's one of the "5 E's System" I teach in the Imaginary Trip classes to help artists learn to sketch on location.
Embellish means just that—to embellish what you see with colors that may not be there or may not be very obvious. Embellishing can be subtle or quite obvious depending on what the art calls for.
When we rely on photos for the majority of our sketching references, we sometimes forget that a camera is limited in the colors it can "see," versus what our eyes and more importantly, our imaginations, can see.
Try adding some "extra" pop to your work by embellishing with some unexpected color and see what you think. Let me know how it goes!
