- Hi, I'm Kath Macaulay with Pocket Sketching.

Next, we're gonna get to another part of illustration outdoors.

It's distance and focal point.

How do you make distance?

How do you make something go away on the piece of paper?

How do you make something come towards you?

And then, how do you make something truly important?

It's all what you do.

It's not what's out there.

What's out there, the camera can catch, but the camera cannot move things in and out the way you see them.

The camera cannot, unless you're a really good photographer, pick a focal point that you like that's a little ways away and bring it toward you.

You can do that.

You can put that all in your sketch and you have absolute control.

And what's more, you can do it quickly, and then you can move on.

And I look forward to having you.

Come join me.

(cheerful music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided by Sedona Hypnosis, LLC, "Healing your past, creating Your future," Muriel Walsh Estate Sales, "Representing people is our business," and by viewers like you.

- We're into some real basics this time, distance and focal point.

They really go together, but they cover just about everything you need in perspective for being outdoors.

So just a little bit of a few examples.

With this one, by the way, this is the first time I ever got geraniums.

Well, I've tried 'em a lot of times, this time it worked.

The flowers are apparently above the the green stuff.

Some of 'em are in it, but they're above.

But notice this is in focus.

That is not in focus.

The farther away you look, the lighter, the less contrast between light and dark, never black in the distance.

It goes away completely.

Then as you go farther back, less contrast between light and dark, see how contrasty it is here, it isn't back there, and things go too blue.

There are two colors that go away.

Yellow goes first, then red goes away.

So a couple more little examples of that and then we get more into it.

This is all blued in the background.

Coming forward, got yellow in that tree on the point, coming forward, the water has more color and there's some contrast in it.

Then this one is gonna be a black and white after you see the photo.

Now the photo has this tree right in the middle, but going to a sketch, and you work out a lot of things with just the pen, the mountains, less contrast, the tree doesn't have a lot of contrast.

The contrast is right here on the barn and the bushes next to it.

Lightest light, darkest dark.

What's really close to you is often out of focus, but you pick the focal point.

If I had picked this, that's where the contrast would've been, and this would not have had it.

So you go back here, all of this is sort of fudged out because you're looking there, you get super high contrast.

But I wanted to get that tree out of that position.

So you just change it.

You can change anything.

Photography, they're stuck with what they see.

This happens to be one of my absolute favorite subjects.

This little dinosaur is in the Botanical Garden in Tucson, only it matches the background so you don't see it unless you're looking to see where they've parked it, and they move it around.

The background, it's all faded out, not very distinct.

This plant, which is, actually has bright foliage, is stepped back to not have bright foliage.

What makes you see the dinosaur is contrast.

See the white?

It didn't have white.

It was all soft brown and greenish brown.

But there's the contrast, hence you're gonna see it, especially against a dark tree.

So that brings it forward.

You completely manipulate this.

That also becomes the focal point at the same time.

Again, distance, not so much contrast back there, more contrast here.

These are from some of my sketches.

I just didn't have the sketches, but we're able to have the copies.

Back in the back goes to blue, less distinct.

This is the Tacoma Washington Harbor.

So back here are the big cranes that handle the container, container, container containers.

They call 'em cans in the trade, and all the ships that are waiting to unload.

That was fascinating.

There were 11 ships in a row.

When you sketch something, you remember what you saw.

When you see the photograph, you might not.

So how is this all manipulated?

And then we'll get to the second half of this in a minute.

How do you manipulate this?

Remember the pen is the skeleton and your values, but I'm gonna be using color, too.

Let's try some sort of old mountains so they're round, I'll maybe make one a little bit bigger, a line for shadows.

Gotta remember that this pen is not creating a drawing, it is creating a bottle of ink to be used.

What about foothills?

Are there some?

Do they have trees on 'em?

Other foothills?

And notice more lines to get greater contrast.

And I'll put some over here and maybe a couple of buildings way over there.

But what's in the foreground?

This is where you come to contrast.

And it's kind of hard to figure out what's in the foreground.

I gotta play around a tad, 'cause it's gonna cut right through there.

What will it be?

Hmm, I like that side, I like this side.

But I'm gonna cut across somewhere, and stick in heavy duty contrast, heavy duty contrast so that it comes forward, and perhaps it's gonna have some color because it can.

So that's just sort of outlining it.

Everything is sort of in there.

Watch what happens when you follow the usual rules that go with distance.

The background, light blue?

Light blue, very light blue.

Ever, ever so, I'm gonna go with this really quickly 'cause I can.

I don't have to fill in all the blanks.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

Let's say I'm in a hurry.

Okay now shadows, get that into solution, but it doesn't change much.

Don't want black back there.

Now, coming forward, incidentally if you don't want that line, give yourself a partly cloudy sky.

And while I mat it, I wanna mention something.

See that exposed line?

That shows you a direction without ever working the line up.

So I'm gonna leave that one, and I'll just take this one, turn it into some clouds, in which case I want something that's sort of dark, the same color that's there.

Why not?

I'm burning out this little piece of dilute paint up here.

There you go, you got some clouds.

Doesn't have to be much.

That works.

But as you come forward, this color changes.

So now I don't want it this flashy at that distance.

What happens if I mix a little green, no, going back to how I mix paints on the paints.

Nothing's in the brush.

You can go anywhere on the green to pick it up, preferably toward the front if you want a clean green.

But now I'm transferring over to the blue with a loaded brush.

It's already got green in it.

I'm going to the backside.

I don't care what's on the backside, the front side is clean.

Now is this gonna be too dark?

That's fairly dark for there.

That's fairly dark.

Okay, stick it in the lid of the box.

Pick up some water, tip it off.

Now pick this up, and it could be cleaner than that, but let's see how this works.

Yep, it's pretty dilute.

Now that's green and blue.

It's in front of the blue mountains.

It actually has more yellow in it.

And I can come over here and I'm gonna, I've wiped out one of the buildings, but here comes the other one.

Go around behind it.

Now I'll get a few trees behind it.

I'm just using the tip of the brush, and it'll do that, but it's not very strong.

And then I'm gonna wanna get something for the roof of the house.

And I don't wanna go to a brilliant red.

I've still got green in the brush.

Pick up anything that's here and I bet it works.

There's the roof of the house for our itch, and let it go.

You might notice that this is coming up extremely fast.

Coming forward here, I want a slightly stronger green next to the house, right down there, because as you come forward, it's going to have more yellow in it.

Now get to this part of the field back here.

Okay, yellow's in the foreground, first color to disappear, then red disappears.

But this is a great big field.

I want those to show up.

It's gonna have to be wishy-washier than that.

I'll bet I can find what I want here, mixed with there.

Is this observable?

Yep, it's observable.

But as you come forward, add more.

Notice it come forward.

I'm adding more yellow, but I'm not coming to a true yellow, just adding a bit more.

Now I want a little bit of red, not much.

That's probably too much.

Let's find out.

Yeah, too much.

Rinse it out, change it.

Watercolor is a movable feast.

Now I'm coming still farther forward.

So I'm gonna add a bit of yellow to that.

It's kind of a yellow green.

It's okay.

These color changes should make things go away and things come forward.

Now I'm in the front.

Hmm, why not just, that's okay, it looks like an extra building back there.

That's fine.

The big tree, it's in the foreground.

Green, red, check, yeah, it's gonna work.

This guy has some oomph.

Now where do I put it?

Well, I can make it again.

Backside of the green, back side of the red, little bit more red.

Pines have red in 'em.

In Tucson, where I'm from, we have, the only pine is the Aleppo, It's an Italian pine.

It has a ton of red in the foliage.

In the evening if you look at it during sunset, it is a red tree, which is impossible to believe.

So if you stick your head upside down and look at it again, you will see it's a red tree.

It has that much red in the foliage.

Okay, notice this guy has contrast, it's coming forward.

You build your depth, you make things go away by your choices of contrast and color, high contrast between light and dark, it's in the foreground.

Now I'm gonna have a few other dark things in here, hmm, more or less.

There's gonna be some real darks.

Why not some plants with flowers?

This time I'm coming to a true yellow.

Notice what it does.

It comes forward.

Now the most advancing color is a brilliant orange, and this one I'll mix in the lid.

Little bit of cadmium red, that's pretty good, maybe a tiny bit more, want a true orange, because that's gonna be the most advancing of all colors.

But you'd also have some contrast.

Would you have some red up in here?

It's dealer's choice, you're the dealer.

Stick it in if you want it.

So it's actually gonna relate to that house in the back.

Now, it's mixed with other colors.

Here, I'm coming to the edge.

I don't wanna lead you off the edge of the paper.

So here, though I've got some red in the brush, it's not gonna show up that much, and I might pick up a little bit more, take it right out of here, stick it over there, not gonna take you off the paper.

Little bit more contrast.

So why not?

Real contrast, why not?

This is a bit of ultramarine blue and a bit of alizarin.

I'm gonna relate to that.

Ah, nice dark.

Now there is a dark, it's in the foreground.

Would it go up the tree?

Yeah, it could.

Could be some over there.

Is it at the base of some of the plants?

As it comes out of the brush, it's less strong.

Would you have some of it here?

Some little funny plant details are in the foreground, they're not in the background.

Then one last dash of color.

By the way, how do you learn color?

You use it, you use it, and you find out the paints are not expensive.

Your first box will last you a year if you're painting a lot, before you have to replace anything.

So don't worry about blowing them.

Okay, we're up here, you can't miss that this is foreground.

Heavy contrast.

Could make it even more so.

Pick up that little tiny bit there and stick it in here.

Okay, real contrast in the foreground, yellow and red are here.

They happen to be in this big expansive field.

And if you wanna change it, you can by the way.

Let's say that's not bright enough back there.

Do I have anything mixed that will do the job?

I bet this will.

Oh, and then I'm gonna blow the whole thing just for the fun of it.

Okay, that relates to the foreground.

It's got a little more yellow.

Now let me show you what happens when you screw this up completely.

What happens if you put yellow on those mountains?

This is a real tricky thing at one time of year in Arizona.

You bring 'em forward.

This does not belong in the distance.

The one time this is fouled up in Arizona, we may get masses of poppies in the spring if the rain has happened at least a week apart for several weeks, everything blooms, and everything has had seeds that last for years and years and years until the right thing happens, and when you get the right amount of water, then you get this very tricky influence of orange on a distant mountains.

It's not that strong, not that strong, but it'll be that strong on a distant mountain.

It's totally out of place, but it's there.

How do you fix things?

Well, you fix 'em.

It's, you just get in there and you fix 'em.

This is too yellow, I can probably still remove it.

Do I want a mountain to go farther away?

What happens if I add more blue?

I want a blue wash. Oh, and this is really fun.

I'm gonna put this mountain farther away by choice on color, just color, kind of messed up the top of it, but that's okay.

And bring the other mountain forward on contrast and color.

I've already got it started, so why not do it more so?

Okay, then add contrast, some red, some ultramarine blue.

Will this mountain come in front of the other mountain?

I didn't stay in the lines too well.

But when you start playing around with heavy duty contrast, want some more blue in there?

I want more blue in there, start playing around with real heavy contrast, it's gonna advance in front of the other mountain.

You can determine this by what you use for color and contrast.

The contrast is gonna come forward.

Down here where it hits the plain at the bottom, I'm gonna lift some of that off, just a bit of it, and it's gonna have a little bit more.

Notice that there's difference now, that one's farther away, this one's closer.

You have total control of that.

You add contrast in the foreground and yellow and red, and as you go to the background, no contrast between light and dark.

This could be lighter.

I can probably lift off part of it.

It could be lighter as it goes back, squish the water out and lift it and make it go farther away.

This is all up to you, but that's basically what the distance is made of.

And then the other thing I wanted to show you is focal point, because they go together.

Right now you're probably focusing here.

By the way, if I wanted to make you focus more here, watch me wipe out the bottom of that house.

Now there's no contrast there.

There's contrast here.

This has just come forward because of wiping out the contrast there.

The little bit of color won't really hurt, but the contrast made you look there.

You can direct the eye of the viewer.

You can change where the viewer looks so the viewer looks away from your mistakes.

It's all totally up to you.

And now a little tiny lesson on focal point.

This was a beautiful house in Ann Arbor.

I passed it many times.

I loved the bench, but I also loved the door.

I also loved the tree.

I also love the, they're called bijoux chairs.

I love the white windows, the shadows are cool.

This is a view from the other end.

This is even more confusing.

I still love, I mean, my goodness, now I've got this side and I've got the window and the door and the mailbox and the tree and the sign and the retaining wall and the bushes, and there were some rocks on the other side of the bushes.

It took a bit of time to calm down enough to pick just one focal point out of the whole thing and exclude other things.

So there are the two photos and there's the end, it's the bench.

It's all about the bench.

Yeah, the window's there, but it's not the major thing.

Oh, and I changed the color of the house, changed the color in the window, because I want a complimentary color scheme across red and green.

The green, and there's more green here than there is over there, although it's an aqua blue or cerulean blue house.

That didn't do it.

I wanted the opposite color, more green.

That brings the attention to the red.

Then you can't let the door take over, 'cause the door is red.

You can't let the mailbox take over, but it's there.

Or the numbers, numbers on architecture is really fun.

It gives it place.

It's a little bit like journaling.

It gives it place to put the numbers on.

And when you've got black numbers and paint, stay away from the line a little bit so you don't run it into a mush.

You wanna be able to see 'em.

Then down here you've got some of the flooring which goes back to red, but I want you to see the bench, so it's not as intense as the bench.

Some of the rocks, just piled 'em there.

There were flowers.

Get a few, get some of the plants, get a bit of the retraining wall, and get a bit of the side of the house, but do not take away from the bench.

It's all about the bench.

So you want to keep your focal point as a focus.

That's sometimes hard, but you've got to look at the focal point and keep your vision on it, and when you're looking at it with your vision on it, be aware of how well you see everything else.

You're going to see lights and darks and a bit of color.

You're not gonna see detail except on the focal point.

So the focal point gets the detail, not the rest.

You keep the detail as far away as you can.

Okay, and this sloppy brush strokes in here.

And just enough to intimate there were boards, not a lot, just enough to intimate this is a red, probably brick, but no, it's not developed.

The only thing that's truly developed was right where you wanna be looking.

So that's both distance and focal point.

And you come back to this one, and that tree is gonna be your focal point having contrast, relatively strong color.

Oh, I didn't think of doing this.

This is one last step.

You want it to pop forward a little bit more.

Pine trees don't have much of this, but this one will.

Remember, it's yours.

What happens if you just add a bit here and there?

Will that make it pop forward even more?

Now that's gonna mix with the paint that's under it, but it's going to influence the paint that's under it.

And you have control over that too.

If I wanted to bring that house out, this is bad design, I'm gonna put you back on the house.

Now you're gonna see that house, and I can blur this so that you have to go back there.

I can also point to it by stuff in the foreground like this.

And now I'm forcing your eye back to the house from what I've done to the foreground.

You've got total control, it's contrast and color.

And by manipulating those, you can move things in and out of your picture to your own delight, for the fun of it, and 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.

- [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided by Sedona Hypnosis, LLC, "Healing your past, creating your future," Muriel Walsh Estate Sales, "Representing people is our business," and by viewers like you.

(cheerful music) (cheerful music continues)