SKETCH ABSURD ART ON LOCATION

Sketching adventurers JAMES GURNEY and the late THOMAS KINKADE explore ways to transform an ordinary scene into eye-catching imagery

- THOMAS KINKADE

While sketching at the zoo one morning, a small boy asked me for a pencil and a piece of paper. He proceeded to transform the bison near us into an alien monster, complete with attack bees, laser beams and sound effects. Comparing his sketch to mine, I realised how I was limiting myself by trying to render the bison literally. Seeing the boy's creativity made me want to cut loose a little. And I realised that there was nothing really preventing me from using my imagination when I'm drawing brand new sketches on the spot.

But what kinds of imaginative transformations are possible? Any form can be exaggerated or distorted with the magic wand of your pencil. You can combine or juxtapose any two things, the more dissimilar the better. To do that we'll need to look at the subject with a child's eyes.

In this article, I'll share some of my favourite tips for adding fanciful or bizarre twists to your location sketches. The art is all from the newly expanded and remastered edition of The Artist's Guide to Sketching, originally written and illustrated in 1982 by me and the late Thomas Kinkade. The tips marked JG are by me, and the ones labelled TK were made by Thomas.

At age 22, James Gurney (pictured) and Thomas Kinkade dropped out of art school and hopped the freight trains. Those adventures led to their later creative careers. James created Dinotopia, while Thomas became the Painter of Light. https://jamesgurney.com.

1 Transforming a tree stump

I chose to sketch this in a weed-infested lot, humming with the sound of mosquitoes. A stunted tree caught my eye, its branches suggesting a fanciful face. I coaxed the face out of hiding, emphasising the eyebrow-branches and open mouth, then eliminated background details to play up the silhouette.

A sprinkler becomes a contrasting afterthought. Sketching on-site among weeds and mosquitoes stimulated my imagination far more than working in a studio. JG