Sketches Take the Pressure Off

By the Bay

Watercolor and pencil

in Large portrait sketchbook, 8.25" x 5.5", by Hand-book

Especially when you don't quite know what you're doing with watercolor, there can be a lot of pressure in starting a new painting. You have to make a lot of decisions, including what kind of paper to use, what colors and whether to mix them or use right out of the tube, how wet to get the initial washes, when the time is right to add layers without the paint spreading too much, and on and on. 

Of course it helps to have a mindset of experimentation and play, but you also quickly become aware that you're after some decent results, and that creates a certain amount of pressure.

For me, sketching takes the pressure off. Anything goes in my sketchbook. Sometimes the sketch lays some groundwork for a more finished painting to follow. Sometimes I like the sketch better than the more finished painting. 

I'm rather fond of this sketch. For me, it captured the orange light and the very dark shadows that I witnessed while walking near sunset yesterday. Whatever happens with the painting(s) that I try of this scene, I'll know that I already have this sketch that caught something essential -- at least for me.