My focus this week is planning before starting major sketches. I am using thumbnail sketches as a planning tool and it is having a big impact on my work. Thumbnails provide such an explicit and speedy way to gauge the choices I need to make. Today I did 7 thumbnails of our dog Luke and then used parts of several to make the sketch below. I wanted to communicate Luke’s expertise in letting me know he is waiting for his walk, but this will take more practice before I can clearly capture his body language. I do feel more confident with showing the depth of the landscape, in part because I now see how the color and distinctiveness of the trees fade as they recede across the slope, and am able to use color value to support this fact. I am glad to be getting away from my reliance on outline, which possibly came about from all the drawings I did in meetings over my schooling and career.