Richard McKinley Field Sketch

Here's our simple scene looking from the patio of Hillsborough Vineyards near Leesburg, Virginia.

Although we didn't see it, Richard did start with a preliminary sketch beforehand. This paper is mounted UART 500 or 600. He uses both.

He gives value and movement to the scene.

He blocks in pastels very lightly.

Using a Viva paper towel, he smears the pastel into the tooth of the paper. Overall, he calls this a field sketch, but I referred to it specifically as paper towel underpainting, one of three that we practiced during the workshop.



It is at this stage that he gains a lot of the coveted mystery.

He pulls back details from the fog, in particular lost and found edges.

Here's some warm purple pencil for details and signature. His final touches, the dots and dashes, take a large amount of the overall painting time.

Note how even this field sketches possesses many of his buzz words: beauty in the mundane, mystery, rhythm, lost and found edges, intimacy, movement, and strength in shape and pattern, to name a few.

The class referred to the middle as Purple Jesus, but Richard was a good sport about it and spoke of many other imagined things in his other paintings. During demos like this, Richard saves time and does not pull back for a wider view.