I have always enjoyed taking photos of old barns - in all shapes from old to new to failing apart. The sketch above is one of those barns, which although falling down, it was still in use. I titled this sketch "Low Maintenance."
How to Select What to Paint:
Although the photo showed a much larger area than just the barn, I selected the part I wanted to sketch by focusing on a subject for my painting, which in this case, was the "falling-down" barn with a small amount of surrounding landscape.
I sketched the barn with minimal detail and only shaded the areas that had missing boards to help me distinguish between the light and dark areas when painting. The trees and fence posts were only minimally sketched for placement only.
Often when painting landscapes, artists have a tendency to want to paint everything they see, rather than focusing on only one main part. This makes for a busy painting with no main subject. Although, the entire scene may be beautiful and inspiring, breaking the landscape up into several parts, makes for several interesting paintings, rather than one large, busy one.
Pull out your pencil and start sketching. Use my sketch as an example, or sketch one from a magazine or photo.
Next blog, we'll work on the background painting.
Happy Painting!
Karen
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