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Sunday, September 18, 2011

September 16, 2011

BC Hydro was working on the power transformers at the back of my apartment building. I was watching out my office window and decided to sketch them hard at work. They were working further down the back lane so it was necessary for me to take in the scene in detail using binoculars. This is a new one for me sketching and flipping back and forward looking at my page and then looking out through the binoc's. Unfortunately using these binoculars flattened the focal plane so close and distance items got squished together losing some of the normal perspective. The poles and power lines were annoying as they blocked some of the view of the truck but were never-the-less part of the action so they stayed. This seems to add some of the charm - IMHO. Anyway I kept at it and here is the result. Watercolour was added after the workers had gone but they are reasonably true due to some notes.

Hmm.. some of the neighbours must think I am a peeping-Tom or peeping-Dave (peeping and sketching combo). LOL

"Our BC Hydro at Work"
[Click on image for larger view]

2 comments:

  1. I really like the choice of subject - noticing someting special in anaverage day. The observation that the binoculars flattened the view is true...I wonder how stroger shawing or fading tones might have brought back more depth the sketch. I also wonder if it would have been excusable to 'adjust' the location of the cherry picker a tad, so that the boom was not so conceled behind the pole.

    Your comment about being a peeping Dave reminds me of the Inuit chap with simiar inclinations...Tommy-took-a-look.

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  2. If I was doing a painting of the subject, I would possibly correct the focal plane and may move a few things around. But as you had pointed out the sketch is really closer to visual journalism than creating art. That is a choice the artist needs to make consciously. In this case I was trying to show some of the chaos and non-neatness in Hydro line work.

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