Thursday, February 14, 2019

Themes for Sketching: How About Clocks?


Having a theme for sketching is just another way of looking at ordinary days.  A way of praising the days and often even smiling at them...giving them attention.  

This particular clock theme evolved when looking through an old journal in preparing for the Sketching Display that will be at the Fine Arts Show in March (a month that seems to be stalking me).  I came upon the sketch I did of the iconic downtown clock in the center of Main Street in Leesburg, Florida in April of 2017.  Obviously out of time...the sketch sat alone on the page.  This got my wheels to spinning.  

Subject matter is one topic in sketching.  Composition is another topic.  Other topics would be Style of drawing, and then Painting (or adding color with some medium) would be another topic.  And Materials would be another, as in type of pens and kinds of paper.  It's a little more complicated than just "Sketching" would imply.  

Subject matter can be approached many many ways.  There are lists of subjects online that you can find to encourage you...and the themes you choose can be in broad categories like "nature journal", "meditative journal", "lists", "memories", "maps", "recipes" or "travel".  Or very specific like "things I did on Jan 12".  It's variety is endless.

This theme ended up a two page display compositionally as I kept thinking of new clocks.  (And I left a little space on the page below just in case another one surfaces.). Think car clock, oven timer, fit bit, antique watch, pendulum, egg timer, smart phone, or sun dial.

Now one last thing...the watch in the first page was Greg's grandfather's train watch.  He worked for the Milwaukee Road in the 1940s.  Greg explained to me why the numbers are not on the face in the ordinary way.  The watch would have been held in his hand with the winder to one side.  And so 12 o'clock is actually printed in the 9 o'clock position so that it would be at the top when he took it out of his pocket and held it in his hand.  Make sense?  

I've looked at this watch many times and never noticed this!
Even the display box is special as it is hand made by Greg's uncle Sig who was a pattern maker by trade.  




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