I don't know if it's just me or if other people have lots of unfinished pages in their sketchbooks, too. I buy pretty nice sketchbooks that are light and easy to carry and that take watercolor, ink, or pencils well. When I don't finish a page, I feel like I'm wasting the good paper. Still, there are many pages that I don't finish.
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| Portland Farmers Market, South Park Blocks |
Lots of things can get in the way of a finished sketch: a car parks and blocks the view, I see someone I know and we get into a good conversation, the weather changes and I flee the scene, or most often, my subjects just walk away or I run out of time. In one case, the person who was going to receive the bouquet we had for her arrived before I was done with the sketch of her flowers.
My dilemna is deciding what to do with the unfinished pages.
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| on the cabin deck with an i-pad |
Sometimes at home, I'll add color to them...
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| Elizabethan Theater, Lithia Park, Ashland |
or words...
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| Portland Urban Sketchers |
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| Portland Farmers Market, South Park Blocks |
or I'll glue things on to fill the page.
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| Hood River Hotel from Celilo restaurant |
Sometimes I have no desire to work on a sketch anymore.
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| North Park Lofts |
Other times, I'm really stumped about how to finish a sketch later...What did the dappled sunlight look like? What was in the background? What colors were those flowers?
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| Cabin |
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| Beach by the river |
Probably taking a picture would help, but usually when I draw or paint from a photo, it just feels like I'm finishing a job, or doing work. For me, the spontaneity is gone along with my connection to it or my interest in it.
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| Lunch at Celilo, Hood River |
Sometimes the solution is to return to the scene at the same time of day and hope for similar weather and light.
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| Laurelhurst Park over two days |
Looking at my sketchbook, I'd need to return to most of the places I've been this summer...and the light is fading and the leaves are turning and the records of the moments that passed will remain incomplete. I'm sure there's some metaphor for life here.
Well, here are some sketches that I did finish--or at least, I stopped.
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| Paul Bunyan statue, Kenton Neighborhood, Portland |
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| Room at the Winchester Inn, Ashland |
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| Fatigued Shopper at Farmers Market |
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| Lilies from the yard |
Does anyone else have a solution to the dilemna of many unfinished sketches...or better yet, to an unfinished summer?
