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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Drawing and homemade view finder tool

In typical Chicago spring fashion, it's snowing here today.  Lucky for me, I have my own make believe spring growing right here in my studio.  This is the completed drawing on the 10x10 canvas, basically the same as my last post's drawing, except bigger and on canvas.  I did spend more time with this one, and I really loved every minute of it.  

Since this is more or less repeating my last post, I thought I would show my little homemade view finder tool.


I made this years ago, as you can see by the smudges and dried paint, from a 5x7 gray mat you can purchase for framing photos.  I cut the corners, then marked off the interior edges, starting at the corners going out, every half inch.  I can view my set up through my adjustable opening and determine exactly what size canvas will make the best composition.  Once that is decided, I paperclip the corners and continue to use it to help locate the major shapes during the drawing phase.  The mid-toned gray can be used to judge values as well.  

Now back to fun with flower!

5 comments:

supplies overflowing! said...

hi!
I don't remember whose blog I was reading, but somehow I found you-
I love your quote by Alfred Sisley, and I would like to reference you, and that quote in my blog. I hope you don't mind.
I have also bookmarked your site so that I may come back to it to see your dandelion(sp.?) painting.
While I have used the "viewfinder" myself, I never heard of marking off measured intervals. It makes sense. Thanks for sharing!
Also, I believe ideas do tend to fester in the brain, and sometimes things need to be put aside for a while before action is taken. Of course I also believe that sometimes I procrastinate too much and need to dive in more quickly.
Looking forward to visiting with you again!
jenny.

Karen Appleton said...

Hi Jenny,
Thank you so much for the compliment! I am more than happy for you to pass along the Alfred Sisley quote! I am glad you found my blog, and love the quotes and prayer you have on your blog as well.

Alice McMahon said...

Hi Karen, I finally figured out how to subscribe via my blogger site! Yay! I love this viewfinder idea!

BTW - you inspired me to paint a small "Danae" ;)

xx

Karen Appleton said...

Thank you Alice! I'm so excited to see your blog, I didn't realize that you had started one. Yea!! Oh my I LOVE your Danae!!

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