- Hi, this is Kath Macaulay with "Pocket Sketching".

What are we gonna do next?

My very, very, very favorite exercise.

It's for when you go outside and you got a focal point, and it's got all kinds of junk you don't like and there are things that should be in it.

Well, you're gonna learn how to move it.

I call it the cobbled still life, but it refers exactly to going outside.

I think you're gonna love it, and we're going to be doing it very shortly.

I look forward to having you.

Come join me.

(upbeat music) Today, we're gonna do my favorite of all exercises.

It absolutely truly is.

Last time you were working on flowers and it was decorative, it was chiefly decorative.

Flowers just happen to be an easy subject.

So, we want you to keep the same mind frame because this too is decorative, and it's basically designing space.

There is a reason, a real reason for doing this exercise.

I call it the cobbled landscape, or rather it's a cobbled still life.

The normal still life, the normal still life, I'll show you one.

There's a normal still life, where you bring everything and you put it in front of you on a table.

And this is what's commonly done.

Almost everybody does it this way.

Well, this is a little bit different.

This is gonna be more mentally challenging.

Same items set up like zits, one here, one here, one there.

It's boring.

Now, what you're gonna get to do, though, is take them out of context and they are not sitting in front of you.

They are wherever they are.

You have to go to them and design with them.

Now, where this is useful.

When you go outdoors, things are not stood up the way you want it.

If you have had this experience, you will be able to do what I'm gonna tell you about next.

Let's say you have a white-haired lady in front of a white building, and you want her white hair to show.

That's hard.

It's white in front of white.

That's a tough thing to work with.

There's a hedge off over there.

It's green.

Move the hedge behind the lady with the white hair, and now the paper is her white hair, and it's a snap.

If you haven't had this exercise and haven't done this a few times, you will find it very difficult to take things out of context when you go outdoors plein air.

Instead, you'll be like a camera, and you wanna put it right where it is, right where it is, right where it is, right where it is.

And that might not be the best design or the most interesting.

You wanna be able to take things out that don't belong there and pull things in and enhance your focal point, which you've already picked.

So, and this is also very useful in another instance.

Let's say you're in a friend's house and up way high on a shelf, they have a pot you love.

In a China cabinet, they have another item you love.

On a table, a third item.

That's three different sketches, right?

No, that's one sketch.

You decide which is in front of and behind the others and you design with space.

So, I'm going to start with a piece of paper and some items.

Now, the items, this funny little decorative thing.

I don't even know what it is, but it's cute.

Got my attention.

I've got the glass of water I'm drinking from, okay?

I've got a wine bottle.

It doesn't matter what it is, it's empty.

And I got a glass of wine.

Now, I cannot set them up like this.

Oh no, no, no.

They should stay right, oh, and I've got a bag and that little thing and a picture frame, okay.

I got a picture frame.

Let's start somewhere, design-wise.

These are gonna come out in front of and behind each other, not side-by-side.

And I may not put them in place.

They have to be where they are.

And ideally, I go where they are and start the sketch.

So, if I went to the wall where the picture frame is, okay, I'm gonna leave it over there so that's where it is.

And you may not see it, it doesn't matter.

but I'm going to put it in.

I'm gonna put it in.

It gives me a nice division of space.

There's my picture frame.

Now, what am I gonna do with the other items?

Is there anybody I really, really like?

No, no.

That little thing right there.

Why wouldn't I play with that?

Would it become my focal point?

I don't even know what it is.

I do not know what it is, but I'm kind of like a crow.

I'm very attracted to things that are shiny, very attracted, so why not?

And this little band is separate.

There you go.

And that's light-colored.

It's really a pretty little thing, whatever it is.

And I don't care.

It's decorative.

And then bring one over here and it comes down like that.

And I've got my little thing.

That's enough.

Now it's in front of, and is it gonna be my subject?

I don't know.

I've got a bottle to play with.

And now I would go over to where the bottle is and start to put it in.

Where is it gonna be placed?

Where is it placed?

Does it exceed the picture frame?

It could.

Is there more of the picture frame?

Perhaps.

Does it matter?

That's a perhaps.

Okay, I'm getting a bottle, and gotta notice sort of where things are.

Okay, yeah.

And it doesn't have to work.

You're gonna be learning.

Okay, the bottle is almost in.

Now, is it gonna be the water glass or the wine glass?

I've got two, and there's a handbag.

Let's not make this too complicated.

Let's not, I mean, I've got these things.

How about, and it's not in this location.

Do I wanna put, and is it gonna take over?

And is that okay?

This is, right now, it could be either glass.

There's that circle at the top and then we just keep going.

If it is the wine glass, if it is the wine glass, it comes out in a little bit of a bulge.

This is certainly gonna change the size.

Ooh, running into problems.

Tell you what it is in a minute.

Tell you what my problem is in a minute, not now.

My problem is very simple, that this is sitting on a table.

There is no room for the bottom of the wine glass and that will put that sitting in the air.

Do I want it on the table?

Then in that case, change.

You can change anything, it's yours.

It is absolutely yours, so why can't you change it?

Nobody is there telling you you can't do this.

"Oh, no, you can't do that.

"Oh, no."

Oh, yes, you can.

Watch the bottom of the wine glass.

It's my glass, my glass.

It just got changed and became, why not have more fun with it?

Tad stubby, tad stubby.

And why wouldn't it do this?

I don't care if it doesn't work.

Okay, now I've got it lopsided.

That stand has to be over farther, so let's hide this a touch.

Let's just hide that.

It's also gonna determine where the light's coming from.

Oh, and why not make it a little thicker?

Why not?

And then if there's shadow there, there'd be shadow here.

You see how this is starting to look now?

Go back and start putting them together.

Go back to where they are.

Walk over to where they are.

I can't because I'm stuck at a table.

But at this point, here comes the picture frame, and it's got some rather nice gewgaws on it, okay.

And that's just pretty straight.

That's pretty straight.

Is there a picture in the picture frame?

It's up to you.

Does the picture frame come down farther?

If so, how far?

And is it in front of or behind the other items, which are not in the right place anyway?

It's behind the bottle.

Gonna be easier to put the bottle in now because it's in front of.

See how that's fitting?

There's the bottom of the bottle.

Now come back and you've got a picture frame.

And bit by bit, this is assuming what it is.

I'm not sure I like, why wouldn't this go higher?

Why wouldn't it?

If it's higher, that angle's gonna change.

So, why not make that dark?

There you go, it works.

Is there a label?

Yeah, maybe not.

Okay, I'm looking down on this, looking across at this.

All kinds of perspective problems, here.

And then this thing, what is this thing?

It's got a shadow under it.

It's casting a shadow.

It's now becoming three-dimensional.

The upper edge of this is gonna be darker.

There might be something in it.

Do you see how this is slowly building?

It builds, and you're taking it completely out of context.

None of these things is where it is.

And normally in a class, I give them five minutes extra to find their goodies, go find them because that takes a few minutes.

This is not a good angle, but I'm not gonna worry about that too much.

I'll change it a tad.

There we go, better angle.

How do you hide the fact that you corrected that?

You make the liquid dark.

There you go, corrected.

Is the rim dark?

Where is it dark?

How about, oops.

The rim would be dark on this side, probably.

And this side would be darker.

Remember, we're playing with a little shadow.

And then, what about the bottle?

Shoulder is dark, comes down that.

Shoulders a tad dark, the neck, neck.

Okay, neck's a bit dark.

Looking for darks.

If it has a label, get the label in if it has a label.

And what do you know?

This one just happens to have, I don't know what they call it, that round burp that they put in the bottom of some bottles.

And that's dark, which is gonna make the thing next to it stand out.

That's cool.

And it's dark right there inside and it's probably dark there.

And it may make shadow back here, and it may cast.

Ooh, is there a table?

Not if that shadow's continuous.

We'll just forget the table.

It's easier.

Forget what you don't wanna deal with.

It's yours.

Okay, everybody laid in here now.

Then normally, If I had a little more time to do this, I'm okay with it.

They were not in front of and behind each other in this order.

The glass is a tall wine glass.

It is not a fat, round glass.

It doesn't matter.

Whatever this thing is, it's cute.

So we wanna get, I like the cute thing.

Where do you wanna start?

Sort of a brown picture frame, okay.

Sort of a brown picture frame.

If I touch this next to that line, that's gonna flow.

Go get that first, get it out of the way.

Here we go, 'cause it would flow, and that would catch me.

Now, if you're dealing with a ballpoint, then you don't have to worry about that.

But if you're dealing with a water-soluble pen, you do.

And then the color of the bottle is a lovely green.

So, find a lovely green.

Then it has all kinds of reflective places.

Gotta start somewhere.

Start wrong?

It's okay, it's yours.

It's 25 minutes out of your life.

I taught a workshop at one place.

While I'm working this out, I have to tell you about it.

The first night when we got there on Sunday, it's customary at the place where I was to have all the artists who are going to teach that week, and they usually have four, describe their class.

They have kind of a cocktail party.

It's really a nice event.

And describe your class and what they're gonna do in the class.

And I don't remember the other two people, but the guy right in front of me does very elaborate watercolors.

And he was talking about, you're gonna have a wonderful week and you get to get, you have the possibility of a fabulous painting, and you may get one done by the end of the week.

I followed that.

And I got to say, you're gonna get one done every 25 minutes.

And if it's bad, it doesn't matter, because you've got the whole rest of the week.

I love it.

Pocket Sketching is really fun that way.

You've got all this time, and if you blub, just flub it up, make a disaster out of it, you got plenty of time to get another one.

It's not really, and I saw people working their tails off in that class.

The studio was open 24 hours a day and people were in there at night, working hard trying to get one thing done.

And then at the end, they were desperate to get one thing done.

And I was just, of course, somewhat laughing, 'cause we get as many as we can.

This is dark over here, so just pull that line in.

It's dark.

And it's a little bit dark on the backside, but there's a white rim.

There we go.

Until you get to the wine, and when you get to the wine, then you're gonna have the color of wine.

So, let's try a little alizarin crimson, hope for the best.

And there's a shine here and there.

And maybe it won't be perfect.

Whole idea is to learn to assemble things.

That's the top.

Now, the sides of the wine are far darker.

This is gonna run, but maybe it'll be really beautiful because it does.

The reason I said it's gonna run is I've got wet right next to wet, and it should run together.

But maybe it won't.

I'm after the little gewgaw at the end really seriously.

And this can be quite dark, there, quite dark 'cause it's, I'm gonna make it still darker.

Okay.

And then quickly pull this in, pull that in, give it a rim, little rim over here.

It's in the shadow.

We're gonna shine up that little guy at the far piece.

Okay, I've got a shadow here.

There is no blue in that.

There ought to be, 'cause I just put a blue shadow in.

Let's go over here, get this done.

There'll be a little bit of shadow over there.

Some in here.

The picture frame.

It's a picture frame, there should be something in it.

Something in it, something in it, something you're not gonna notice in it.

Something in it.

Something in it.

Something you're not gonna pay any attention to.

Something, just something.

Nothing that's gonna attract your attention.

Bit of sky.

That's something.

The upper part of the picture frame is a little bit lighter.

Let's go up there and grab that like that, like that.

Come out here.

Bring it down here.

Picture frame is about done.

Bring it down there, get it over there.

Oh, the label, label on the wine bottle.

Label.

A little bit of label up here.

Didn't think of that.

That shouldn't be living like that.

And now, what are we gonna do with the little thing?

That little thing, it's got brilliant blue.

It's got white.

It's got brilliant blue.

It's all, it's gonna be about the little thing.

I don't know what the thing is.

I'm just intrigued by it, that's all.

It's just a little thing.

I want you to see it.

That's part of it.

Now there's more.

Blue, opposite of blue.

Opposite of blue is a secondary.

It's orange.

There.

I want a really good orange.

I want it to be orange, not red.

Orange, because the little thing has to be seen.

There's your complementary color scheme.

Now, what am I gonna do about the flashy gold?

That almost would be gold.

What am I gonna do about the flashy gold?

I'm gonna go to a slightly duller color 'cause it's got flashy gold.

I'm hoping that the little thing will get your attention.

And I don't know what it is.

It doesn't quite have my attention yet.

Then I have to step it up tiny, tiny bit more.

Now, the whole purpose is this, remember, was to take things out of context.

That's all.

Take things out of context and put them in a still life together.

Woo!

Now the little thing is gonna get your attention, and we still don't know what it is.

I like the color there.

I've got some red in my brush and I step it up a touch.

The wine right there would have some color.

This would reflect.

And I can look over there and see if there's anything reflecting on it, 'cause it's over there.

Just put it, oh, and I'm gonna go back to John Singer Sargent for a final step on this.

Here we go, put a little bit of wine there and there.

Okay.

We've got things in front of and behind each other.

We've not figured out if there's a table.

If there's a table, hmm.

The table cannot be here, because guess what?

The wine bottle's off the table, it's floating.

So, we're gonna put a different level table right there.

And you know what?

I bet it doesn't matter.

I bet it does not matter a tad.

Let's see what happens.

Nope, it doesn't matter.

So now, what does matter?

Design's not too cool.

That was a gorgeous dash.

By the way, I can get excited about things.

Would that be the inside?

I wanna step, now, these came out of context, and maybe it's not the greatest on earth.

Doesn't matter.

But this is straight out of John Singer Sargent.

What am I gonna do with all this?

Well, that was it.

That is the Sargent squiggle with which you fill space, as if it were painted, as if.

And why not down there, too?

See how it finishes it up?

That's how he filled in space.

I just absolutely loved that.

When I saw what he was doing, I said, "Oh, wow, that is just too simple.

"Way too simple."

I'll go ahead and fix that picture frame a tad, make it a bit more interesting, maybe.

And maybe just say, "Hmm, that's okay."

I got to put, this is over here.

Those are over there.

They're not in this position.

So, it met with what I wanted it to do.

Things in front of and behind, which are not in front of and behind.

And you don't have to put them in a still life.

No, you can take your pad over to where they are.

Sketch them in.

Go back over to another one, sketch it on.

They're still there for reference.

But this is gonna teach you when you go outside that you can take everything out of where it is and put it where you want it.

And you are not a camera.

You got a brain.

This is gonna use your brain.

And you're gonna have so much fun doing this.

If you'll do this at home, it's a great at-home.

You can do this any time in just a few minutes.

It's everywhere.

The stuff is everywhere you are.

Almost everybody collects stuff.

Just a couple of them that I have that I rather like.

It's better than the one I did for you.

And these were not together, they were in different places.

A common drink cup.

This one was fun.

Big, bad mistake.

It was right here.

Turned it into a mouse, okay?

Then eyeglasses.

How common are eyeglasses?

The more mundane the subject, the more you'll like it.

This one, I wanted to capture that painting.

I was somewhere where it was.

Loved the colors.

Made a mistake.

The painting does not belong in front of the clock.

But we get mistakes.

This one, it's a good one.

Some of them are good, some of them aren't good, but they're all learning.

And it's all about learning.

It's not about creating things for the wall.

It's all about learning wonderful things that you can do, and you can do it all with Pocket Sketching.

And you know, it's no big deal.

Just put it away and walk on and go about your life.

It only took a few minutes.

Thank you for coming.

I've loved having you with me, and enjoy.

Happy sketching.

Want to learn more about the wonderful world of Pocket Sketching?

Then visit my website at pocketsketching.com.

We have so much there for you to explore, including free tips and training videos, the Pocket Sketching supplies, photo galleries, and how to access additional training.

All this and more is available at pocketsketching.com.

Learn enough to play for a lifetime.

(upbeat music)