Tips x Five

Erased Trees
@14' x 10"
Pastel Study
Casey Klahn

Thumbnails are useful for establishing value, linear or color compositions.

1. A thumbnail sketch can be any size "rough" out of a painting idea. I often make them about 3" x 1.5", and sometimes even smaller. The one pictured here is full size, though.
2. What's the use in being inhibited in a rough sketch? Try new color ideas, and make mistakes like a shore-bound sailor.
3. Save all of these sketches. I will pull them out of a drawer even a year or two late and have an "ah ha!" moment.
4. One commonly missed opportunity for experimentation is to take a "failed" painting and go back into it with even more experimentation, mistakes and trial efforts.
   
5. My wife will sometimes filch these mini paintings and put them in Christmas ornament frames.