Color Sketches: A Handy Tool for Designing a Painting

In this example I first experimented with different value patterns.
Each sketch built on the previous one culminating in a full color sketch.

When painting short-lived flowers or fleeting landscapes, I am tempted to forego planning the composition of a painting. Yet the time spent designing a painting often saves me time overall and improves the odds of the painting being a success.  I find color sketches to be a handy way to test out and capture the concept of the painting. During the process, opportunities to play up edges become clear. I can also spot needed changes in the setup or view.  A color sketch guides me throughout the development of the painting, resulting in fewer missteps and purer color.

Color sketches are the first topic featured in my new Old Garden Arts free painting video series--short YouTube videos demonstrating painting techniques and tips--published every other Wednesday. Click here to view the Color Sketches video.

 I look forward to painting with you!

Flower Harvest Before Frost

Here are the flowers and fruit gathered from the garden the evening before the first frost here in southeastern Pennsylvania. I had hoped to spare them from frost damage so that I could paint them. Surprisingly despite temperatures in the low 30s, the blooms left behind in the garden all made it through the frost just fine, including roses, petunias, cosmos, sage, and irises. No second frost yet and all of these continue to happily bloom outside!

The Season's Last Roses



Painting a color sketch featuring David Austin roses.

The profusion of roses and their looming absence from the garden over winter has had me focusing on a series of studies featuring roses. Focusing on David Austin roses and tea hybrid roses, I've been analyzing roses' colors and form, drawing charcoal studies, painting full-size value studies, and capturing quick color sketches.



Painting a value study featuring hybrid tea roses.

George Cochran Lambdin (1830-1896), was a Philadelphia area painter famous for his roses. He began painting roses as a means to explore the subtleties of flesh tones for his portraiture work.  He painted roses in natural settings and in the greenhouse; one painting even includes a wheelbarrow full of roses. Happy will be the day when my garden yields such a profusion! In the time being, I treasure the small handfuls offered up daily.