March 4, 2011

Today’s Featured Sketch - Tennis Anyone?

Today’s sketch is from my Sketchbook Project sketchbook.  It ia a colored pencil drawing on a piece of blue/gray canson paper.


With Spring right around the corner here in the northeast, and the ATP Tour ready to begin its hardcourt season out west at Indian Wells, thought I'd share a tennis player portrait with you.

I did this up from a reference photo I shot a few years back at a USTA mens futures event that a local tennis club hosts every summer. My zoom lens came in handy for this shot! Actually I think I was on the other side of a chain-link fence at the time. The intense concentration as he's ready to accept serve is what the subject really is here. I like cropping in nice and tight for compositions.

In any case, warm skin tones always pop nicely off of a cool background. Orange and blue are complements after all. I am learning to enjoy colored pencil work more and more but cannot ever see them replacing my love for the oil paints. This took me maybe an hour and a half.

Tune in next time for a first step of the next new painting I'll be releasing for 2011!

joe@joewinklerart.com

JoeWinklerArt.com