Virtual Open Studio - Virtual Open Studio – Thumbnail Sketches for Landscapes or Favorite Photo on Your Camera Roll

Virtual Open Studio – Thumbnail Sketches for Landscapes or Favorite Photo on Your Camera Roll

Thursday, September 17th | 7:30 – 9:00 pm

In this Open Studio, we'll explore the simple but powerful practice of thumbnail sketches—small, quick drawings that artists use to plan a painting before beginning the final piece.

We'll look at why artists use thumbnails and how these little sketches can help us explore composition, placement, light and dark, and the overall feeling of a landscape before we commit to a larger painting.

Mini Exploration: Landscape Thumbnail Sketches in Your Art Journal

We'll begin with a short guided lesson and create a series of simple thumbnail sketches using landscape photos from our phones.

Bring a favorite landscape photo - or a few photos -you've taken or saved on your phone. It could be a place you've visited, a beautiful view, a sunset, a favorite outdoor spot, or simply an image that speaks to you.

You'll explore:

• simplifying a landscape into basic shapes and forms
• experimenting with different compositions and viewpoints
• looking at light and dark values
• deciding what to include - and what to leave out
• trying several ideas quickly without worrying about perfection

These small sketches will help you look at your favorite photo in a new way and begin making artistic choices about how you might turn it into a painting.

We'll use these thumbnail studies to help prepare for our landscape or photo from your phone painting in the following Open Studio, where you'll have the opportunity to take one of your ideas and develop it into a larger painting.

There is no right or wrong way to create a thumbnail. They're quick, loose, and simply a tool to help you see your ideas before you paint them.

Materials Needed:

• Art Journal, sketchbook, or mixed-media paper
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Black or gray marker (optional)
• Ruler (optional)
• Your phone with 1–3 favorite landscape photos
• Colored pencils or watercolor pencils (optional)

You can find some of my favorite art supplies on my Amazon Affiliate Supply List:
Christine’s Art World Amazon Affiliate Supply List

After the mini lesson, you can:

• continue creating landscape thumbnail sketches
• develop one of your ideas further
• or work on your own project during the remainder of Open Studio

Let this be a time to slow down, explore some possibilities, and discover how a few small sketches can help bring a larger painting to life.