Friday 25 July 2008

Summer sketches make winter paintings

Summer is such a good time to get out and about with your paints and sketchbook. We get so locked indoors in the winter months because of the weather, and it’s good to use the warmer and drier summer months to go outside and collect material to use in the winter days. If you sketch as well as take photographs, you will soon build up a wonderful resource that will spark off ideas from which to paint.

So my advice this month is this – take a small pad and a pencil with you wherever you go, and sketch anything that you see of interest. If you can manage it, keep a small watercolour paint box and a couple of brushes in the car so that you are always ready to paint a quick scene. It doesn’t have to take more than a few minutes to capture the essence of a building, a landscape, a group of children playing, or whatever it is that has caught your attention. And who knows what masterpieces these sketches will inspire in the winter months to come!

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