by Leonie Andrews

Finding space

I had one of those ‘duh’ moments this week when several observations just clicked into place for me.

I was watching a sketchbook ‘tour’ video by British artis Lis Watkins (link below), admiring, yet again, her excellent use of white space and the restrained use of detail in her work.

Borrowed from Lis Watkins Instagram account ‘lineandwash‘

Later in the evening I was sketching online with friends and was really happy with the outcome of my sketch of this bowl of peeled limes. Of course I’d left lots of space around it and felt no need to include all of the bowl in my drawing.

A bowl of peeled limes

Obviously I was reacting to seeing Lis’ work and when drawing objects this approach seems a pretty natural one for me to use.

On the other hand when I sketch on location,  wearing my ‘Urban Sketchers’ hat I often fall into the convention of ‘filling’ the page. I think if you look back to my previous post ‘Practice, practice‘ you can see what I”m referring to. I took a photo early on in the process and the sketch was pretty much ‘there’. I then kept going and looking back on it now, I  realise I should have stopped much sooner!

So this week I’m consciously trying to save some white on my page, while simultaneously keeping sufficient  ‘location’ information in my sketch*.

My latest ‘urban sketch’ at a local cafe on Monday.

I am liking the look of this sketch. It’s certainly a challenge to balance both space and location. I’m sure I can do this.

*If you’re not familiar with Urban Sketchers, the international sketching organisation, it’s primary goal is to encourage people to sketch on location, and that location needs to be visible (in some form) in the sketch.

Lis’ video of her sketches from recent travels is linked here:

9 Comments

    1. Unknown's avatar

      Hi Claudia, it’s funny how it can take so long to reach these conclusions. I suppose we spend so much time on the practicalities of drawing and painting, that it’s easy to pass over important perspectives that would improve our work, even if the technical niceties are still developing.

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  2. Unknown's avatar

    Those ‘duh’ moments are wonderful aren’t they, a sudden enlightenment! Your sketches are looking great. Thanks for the link to Lis’s sketchbook, her work is lovely, inspiring to me too! Useful ideas for sketching on my next trip!

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    1. Unknown's avatar

      Hi Anna, so lovely to hear from you. It all seems so obvious after the realisation. I suppose that if I thought about this more often I might make faster progress. I love Lis’ style. We were at the same event in Poland last year, but I didn’t get to meet her.

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Thanks for commenting, I like to hear your thoughts and ideas.