Day 3 of 31 Days of Art:
Making Thumbnail Sketches


Plan your composition ahead of time. If you have a bad composition before you add paint you're going to have a bad composition after you have paint.   You can change it after you've begun but it's a lot of effort and paint.  

Prevent hours spent on a bad composition, make small versions of what you think you'd like your drawing or painting to look like.  Doing quick sketches in small formats that are similar in proportion to your larger canvas will give you lots of information.   

As a help for us, here are a couple of thumbnail worksheets for you to use in a rectangular format and in a square format.  These are images, so you can save them to your hard drive by right clicking.  
Here's a doodling assignmment:    Draw three shapes in each square or rectangle that bleed off the edges of the square or rectagle.   Then pick one to paint in an abstract way. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

testing...

Kim at Thistle Dew said...

Hi Dixie!
I've bookmarked your 31 Days Project so I remember to come back and check each day! Thanks for the wonderful posts so far!

I have to make myself do thumbnails... I was never taught to do them when I was younger, so it's like pulling teeth to start with them. BUT, when I do, I always end up with a much better composition, and usually several extra ideas to work on too.

Good to meet you!
Kim :-)

Dixie Redmond said...

Nice to meet you, too, Kim! I took 2D design and they made us do them but I am so resistant. I want to just get in there with the paint. But I have some bad paintings (and that's okay) as a result. Later in the series I'm going to talk about rescuing "bad" art.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dixie - so happy to have found you through Nester's 31 Days. What a great start and looking forward to your entire series.

xoxo michele

Margie S said...

I'm enjoying your series. I've always wondered if I could have been an artist. Maybe I'll get out some pencils and paints and give it a try. Those thumbnails don't seem too intimidating!

Daisy Debs said...

O.k I will give it a go :)


"Do not let what you cannot do
keep you from doing what you can do."

John Wooden