THE SKETCH
The sketch is the germ of the picture. It contains the idea which may
later become the finished work. In your sketches you gather effects
and suggestions of possibilities, of all kinds. You do not work long
over a sketch, nor do you work perfunctorily. You do not make it
because you ought to, but because you see something in nature which
charms you; or because you have found an idea you wish to make a note
of.
Understand thoroughly the use and meaning of sketches, and you will
get more good from the making of them. For your sketching is an
important matter to your painting. You do not learn how to paint by
sketching; but you can learn a great many things, and some of them you
can learn no other way. A sketch is not a picture; neither is it a
study. Each of these things has its special purpose and function, and
its proper character.
A sketch is always a note of an idea--an idea seen or conceived.
Everything is sacrificed in the sketch to the noting of that idea. One
idea only, in one sketch; more ideas, more sketches.
There are two kinds of sketches: those made from nature to seize an
effect of some sort; and those made to work out or express tersely
some composition or scheme of color which you have in your mind. Both
are of great use to the student as well as essential to the work of
the artist.
[Illustration: =Sketch of a Hillside blocked in from Nature, First
Suggestion of Composition, etc.=]
The first conception of a picture is always embodied in the form of a
sketch, and the artist will make as many sketches as he thinks of
changes in his original idea. It is in this form that he works out
his picture problem. He is troubled here by nothing but the one thing
he has in mind at this time. It may be an arrangement of line or of
mass. He changes and rearranges it as he pleases, not troubling
himself in the least with exactness of drawing, of modelling, of
color, nor of anything but that one of composition. It may be a scheme
of color, and here again the spots of pigment only vaguely resemble
the things they will later represent; now they are only composition of
color to the painter, and everything bends to that. When this has been
decided on, has been successfully worked out, then it is time enough
to think of other things. And think of other things he does, before he
makes his picture; but not in this sketch; in another sketch or other
sketches, each with its own problem, or in studies which will furnish
more material to be used later; or in the picture itself, where the
problem is the unity of the various ideas within the great whole in
the completed painting.
It is the sketch on which the picture rests for its singleness of
purpose. No picture but begins in this way, whether it is afterwards
built up on the same canvas or not. The sketch points the way. But all
the preliminary sketches of a painting are not problems of composition
or color; are not conceptions of the brain. There are suggestions
received from nature which the painter perceives rather than
conceives. Possibilities show themselves in these, but it is in the
sketch that they first become tangible and stable. This is the sketch
from nature, always the record of an impression, the note of an idea
hinted by one fact or condition seen more sharply or clearly than any
or all of the thousands which surrounded it at the moment.
The painter must always sketch from nature. Only by so doing can he be
constantly in touch with her, and receive her suggestions unaffected
by multitudinous facts. The sketch preserves for him the evanescent
effects of nature, which the study would not so entirely, because not
so simply, grasp. The sudden storm approaches; the fleeting cloud
shadow; or the last gleam of afterglow; these, as well as the more
permanent, but equally charming effects of mass against mass of wood
and sky, or of meadow and hill, he can only store up for future use or
reference in his sketches.
=Main Idea Only.=--In the making of the sketch, then, no problem
should come in but that of the expression of the main idea,--no
problem of drawing or of manipulation of color. To get the idea
expressed in the most direct and immediate and convenient way,
anything will do to sketch on or with; that which presents the least
difficulty is the best. The matter of temperament, of course, comes
in largely, and technical facility. That which you can use most
freely, use in your sketching, and keep for other occasions the new
means or medium. Use freely, if you can, black and white for whatever
black and white will express, and pigment for all color effects. Oil
for greatest certainty and facility of correction.
=Quick Work.=--Make your sketch at one sitting, or you will have
something which is not a sketch. Work long enough, and it may be a
study; but more than one sitting makes it neither one thing nor the
other. To say nothing of the fact that the conditions are unlikely to
be exactly the same again, you are almost sure on the second working
to have lost the first impression,--the freshness and directness of
purpose which the first impress gives; and this is the very heart of a
sketch. You must never lose sight of what was the original purpose of
it; never forget what it was which first made you want to paint it. No
matter what else you get or do not get, if you lose this you lose all
that can give it life or reality.
The very fact that you have limited yourself to one working makes you
concentrate on that which first caught your attention, and that is
what you want to seize.
Overworkings and after-paintings will only interfere with the
directness and force with which this is expressed.
Remember that nature is never at rest. You must catch her on the wing,
and the more quickly you do it the more vivid will be the effect.
[Illustration: =The River Bank.= _D. Burleigh Parkhurst._
Half-hour sunset sketch.]
"Nature is economical. She puts her lights and darks only where she
needs them." Do the same, and use no more effort than will suffice to
express that which is most important. The rest will come another time.
Try to keep things simple. Keep the impression of unity; have the
sketch one thing only.
Express things as they look. As they look to _you_ and at _this time_.
How they seem to some one else, or seemed at some other time, is not
to the point. What you know they are or may be will not help you, but
only hinder you in a sketch. The more facts the worse, in sketching.
Remember always what a sketch is for. Don't be beguiled into trying to
make a picture of it, nor a study of it. Above all, don't try to make
a clever thing of it. Make something sincere and purposeful of it, and
have it as concise, as terse, as direct, and as expressive of one
thing as you can.
=Keep Looking.=--Always keep your eyes open and your mind receptive;
do not be always looking for reasons. Accept the charm as it presents
itself; note it, if you have anything handy to express it with; if
not, study it, and get something into your mind and memory from it.
The simplest way of expressing it, and the simplest elements which
cause it, you can study without the materials to preserve it, and you
so keep your receptivity and quicken your power of observation.
Your sketch will be more quickly done, directly and more forcefully,
if you map out the thing rather deliberately first with a few very
exact lines and masses in some way: then you have a free mind to
concentrate on the effect. A few values and masses well placed are the
things you most want; you can almost always spare time to ensure
their exactness by a few measurements and two or three rubs of color
first. Of course if the sketch is of a passing gleam you can do
nothing but get a few smudges of color. But get them true in value and
in color relation; get the glow of it, or you will get nothing.
=Canvases of a Size.=--In sketching from nature, have the habit of
using always the same sized canvases or panels. They pack better, and
you learn to know your spaces, and so you do quicker and better work.
Make them big enough to do free work on, yet small enough to cover
easily, so that you lose no time in mere covering of surface. Ten
inches by fourteen is plenty small enough, and fifteen by twenty large
enough, for most persons. Suit yourself as to the size, but settle on
a size, and stick to it. Nothing is more awkward and inconvenient than
to have stacks of canvases of all sizes and shapes.
Always have plenty of sketching materials on hand. You will lose many
a good effect which will pass while you are getting your kit ready.
In sketching, avoid details. When you want them, make a study of them.
In a sketch they only interfere with frankness of expression. One or
two details for the sake of accent only, may be admitted.
Make a frame with your hand, or, better, cut a square hole in a card,
and look through it. Decide what is the essence of it, what is vital
to the effect, and do that; concentrate on that. Put in what you need
for the conveying of that, and leave out everything else.
=Work Solidly.=--Work in body color, and lay on your paint fully and
freely. In getting an effect of light, don't be afraid of contrast
either of value or of color. Paint loosely; get the vibration which
results from half-mixed color. Don't flatten out the tone. Load the
color if you want to. In twenty years you will wonder to see how
smooth it has become.
Freedom and breadth give life to a sketch. Don't work close to your
work. Don't bend over it. Use plenty of color, large brushes, and
strike from the shoulder.