Taking in the View

After twenty-six months of sketching a new scene pretty much every day,  I am making a change. Rather than sketching a scene one day and then moving on to a new scene the next day, I will be sticking to a setting and repainting it several times. For example, I did several versions of fruit, sunflowers and the view from the west side of San Diego State University this month, each time making different choices. I want to develop my skills at composing and think this will help.

Today’s sketch is again from the plaza on the west side of the SDSU’s campus and is the third sketch in this series. The palm trees, sky and railing attract my eye each time I am there, and I want to use these features to suggest a story for the people who spend time there. In this sketch today I extended the apartment building across the horizon line and made the trees blend into the sky. The sky and people are bright and the building is bland. I think these choices put more of the focus on the people.

This is a 9 X 9 inch gouache sketch.