• a cruciform (cross) composition
• design doesn’t  extend into the corners of the picture plane
• image forms interesting areas of white space as it extends to the edge
• Generally, it extends to 3 or all 4 edges (but leaving corners untouched)

At right are a few rough sketches, just playing with the concept of image vs space, and below, few vignettes that I completed last night.

Sketched awhile back from the plaza along the Embarcadero, with a view of the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building, San Francisco.

If you’d like to see Eric’s loose and lively watercolors, click HERE. I’ll be studying his fresh approach to jazz up my own work soon….

Here I am indoors on a chilly winter night this month, sketching from my couch and using the cat as a table. He actually was quite content to be employed as furniture. I highly recommend you try this at home with your own pets and/or roommates.

I do sometimes sketch from photos. But I still try to sketch mostly onsite, whether indoors or outdoors, wherever I happen to be. Once, in a heavy rainstorm, I painted from inside my car.

In the East Bay, there’s a small, informal group that scouts out very creative places to sketch on Tues. winter evenings. I’ve only been able to join them a few times, but I like hearing about their adventures. Their field trip to a hardware store produced very interesting sketches. Who knew that toilet seats hanging on the wall could be subject matter for art? (see it HERE) They’ve also sketched at an automotive dealership (shiny cars, balloons, signs, customers), a café / bakery where you can watch through a large window as the bakers prepare bread and pastries for the next morning, at pubs, a Vietnamese restaurant with a life-size bronze ox, a Mexican restaurant with red and ochre walls and colorful ceramics, and occasionally (with permission) have sketched a yoga class or other event. There’s always something to sketch.