The Bates College Musuem of Art presents

Sketches and Studies

Art materials are very expensive, and preparing them to make a finished painting can take a great deal of time. Many artists prefer to work out their ideas thoroughly before making a finished painting. This saves time and helps to avoid the inefficient use of costly materials. To work out their ideas, artists have two very important activities: sketching and studying.

A study is the objective analysis of a particular component of a composition. Why do artists do this? If one is trying to make a picture of something, it is vital that one knows as much about how it looks as possible. For instance, here is a study of hands by D.D.Coombs.

Coombs made portraits and political cartoons, so being able to paint and draw hands convincingly was very important to him. Making this drawing was like doing research.

A sketch differs from a study in that it is playful, experimental and usually is somewhat incomplete. Sketching is very similar to brainstorming. Sketches can be made with any medium from pencil on paper to sculpting in clay. Here are some sketches by Marsden Hartely:

Notice how the artist is working out different versions of the same idea. Also, notice that there is very little detail. Only basic information is depicted.

Sometimes pictures combine the process of sketching and studying. When they do, it is difficult to decide how to categorize such a picture. Sometimes sketches are so fully realized they seem almost more like finished pictures. Take a look at Joel Babb’s sketch of Nesowednehunk Stream.

Does it look like a finished painting to you? Do you think it is a sketch or a study? As you look at the picture make a list of observations about the sketch, skipping several lines between observations. Read through it. Next, add details to your initial observations.

Now take a look at the finished painting. It might look small on your computer, but in reality, it is more than four feet wide.

Can you see more details in the finished painting? What are they? Write them down. Now look back and forth between the two pictures. Write a list of observations that describe the differences between the two. Has the artist changed anything? How has that changed the overall feel of the picture?

Explain how, when you are writing observations, are you making sketches or studies or both? The process of making quick, general observations, turning them into sentences and grouping those by subject is a lot like sketching. By doing so, the writer composes his or her work and creates a flow of ideas through a structure of paragraphs. So what is the writer’s equivalent of studies? When an artist studies, the process is about learning specific information. Writers do research and take notes to gather information.

Using one of the works of art below, first make a sketch of it with words. Then, take notes about specific details of the picture by observing and describing. Be sure to include both objective and subjective observations.