Tip: Thumbnail Composition Sketches

A thumbnail sketch is a small pencil drawing from one to three inches in size. These sketches are done quickly and shouldn’t take longer than about 30 seconds to complete. Because they require so little time, thumbnail sketches can be used to work through ideas and to try different compositions before putting any paint on the canvas. This saves the artists time and anguish over false starts and almost always leads to be a better painting.

Here is a process you can use to create a thumbnail sketch:

1. Draw a small box that resembles the format you intend to use. Include more than one format if you are struggling to decide which format works best for your composition.
2. Using principles of good composition complete the drawing. Avoid details. Include only the largest shapes and lines. Add only what is necessary to capture the essential characteristics of the scene.
3. As needed, move the elements around in your sketch until the composition looks good to you. You can also remove or add elements to your sketch that may not be in the original reference.
4. Roughly shade the masses to get a sense for the overall value relationships. Limit your values to three (that is, light, middle, and dark).
5. As desired, create additional boxes and experiment with different placements of shapes, patterns, and values. You also can just redraw the borders of your small box until you come up with a format you like better.
   
   
6. Select the most successful sketch to base the layout of the final painting.
7. Add notes to your selected sketch that might help you later in the painting process. You might note relationships, contrasts, weather, sounds, and smells. Whatever might help bring back the ideas you were working with.

John Lovett provides a good example of how a thumbnail sketch can be used to quickly address composition issues and get a painting off on the right foot. In the following example John is able to modify the original scene to make the subject more interesting and eliminate unwanted detail.

Here is the reference scene John started with:

This is a little village, high above the sea on the coast of Italy. John wanted to focus on the weathered textures and subdued colors of the tower rather than the detail on the right hand side of the village.

Here is his quick thumbnail sketch that he used to help organize his composition. As you can see he decided to use a horizontal layout and contrast it with a dark diagonal band from the top left to the bottom right.

Here is his final product. I find it much more interesting that the original scene.

Using thumbnail sketches to plan an effective composition will make the painting process easier and your paintings more engaging.