Views & Objects I Think I am Seeing

I prefer to sketch on-site views and not views from imagination or views or objects from practice or techniques. Recently I visited a Chinese painting exhibition and it was clear that none of the paintings were from on-site place.  Views of mountains, water, birds and flowers were all ‘objects’ painted in a studio during an exercise of discovery. As a result many of the works looked similar.

Sketching is perhaps of a different genre in the world of art. Personally I sketch to stimulate my perception and to challenge myself to see how to capture images that I think I am seeing. Too often we use the digital camera to compliment our ‘seeing’, but in reality our eyes perceive images in 3D while sending the observations to the centre of our consciousness. We see views differently from the 2D image that the camera captures.  Our eyes and consciousness are also partners to variable, multiple station points. We will always perceive more than we think we are seeing. The world of 3D cinema and television are now discovering this advantage.

However visiting an on-site place is not always possible. The next best exercise is to sketch your everyday personal objects close on hand. Here’s my Pro Trek Casio, Nikon D80 and my miniature aluminum case for delicate electronic equipment. The Nikon sketch was done with a ball-point pen while a Rapidograph pen created the others. Very different objects that call for details and interpretation of what you are seeing.