Sketching

Sketching, unlike a finished painting or drawing, is immediate, brief by definition, and generally intended to capture a fleeting impression or idea. The sketcher often only has a few minutes before their subject disappears or the light or weather changes. Crowds are constantly moving; so is water. Sketching forces the artist to observe sharply and paint or make marks accurately and quickly. 

A good example of a quickly drawn but incomplete sketch is a small graphite image of one of the Principal Building, a dominant downtown building here in Des Moines. Towering over its neighbors, the building has a fairly complicated architecture that must be drawn with accuracy. This sketch took about an hour in a one of my sketchbooks. I often use toned paper to provide a middle value to set darks and lights against. The purpose of this sketch was simply to study the building's structure. Anyone making an image of the city needs to make an accurate image of this one.
 

 

Another study of downtown buildings provides context and an understanding of surrounding structures. The dominant building of course is still the Principal. In this case I used white chalk to provide a more structural look.
 

Finally, here's a watercolor sketch of the Des Moines skyline, from last Saturday's sketch session. We went to a park just south of the Raccoon River, overlooking downtown, and painted. The day was sultry, the south wind warm but slightly cooling. I laid in the shapes faintly with graphite pencil, painted broad color shapes then refined the outlines here and there with ink. With this kind of sketch plus various graphite studies, there's probably enough information to use in a studio oil painting.