Welcome Visitors Linda Gunn was inspired to paint White Tower (acrylic and collage, 22x28) by two ravens that shared a bench near the Tower of London with her, and it combined several of her separate sketches and photos.

The world around us is overflowing with artistic subjects. Not just those that everyone recognized - the glorious sunsent, the soaring eagle, the laughing child - but everything. If you look at it right, that empty field at the end of your street might make a beautiful painting. From the right angle, that chair you’re sitting in might make an interesting photograph or sculpture. It’s true of just about anything, andwhere you look, as long as you look carefully at what you see and can recognize which characteristics of the subject are important for a work of art.

And how do you do that? Well, the part about looking carefully isn’t so hard, even if it’s rare. In our fast-paced world crammed with attention-grabbing images, it may seem impossible to really look at something deeply, taking not of its patterns, its subtleties of color and its unique shapes, but all it really takes is a little concentration and patience. Plus, most of the time you’ll find that the longer you look, the more interesting your subjects become, and the easier it is to see these things.

As for the second part, here’s more good news: The characteristics you find most interesting and unusual when you observe a subject closely are the very things that can become the keys to your artwork. To get more specific, I talked to Linda Gunn, foudning director of the National Acrylic Painters Association, about how she looks at her subjects and how she teaches her students to better see what needs to be seen.

It’s All in the Book
For Gunn, observing a potential subject closely goes hand in hand with skietching it. As an artist who travels a lot and paints a wide variety of scenes, she records her experiences in sketchbooks/journals that contain drawings, notes, photos - even brochures and collectibles. “They resemble and illustrated scrapbook,” she says, “and I use them as reference material for future paintings. The sketches are like my road maps.”

Art Creates Art These figures at the base of the Peter Pan statue in London motivated Gunn to re-create them in Out of Pan (acrylic, 11x15).

One of the key elements of these sketchbooks is that in addition to sketching her subject, she’ll records some crucial information about it, as well. “I write down my observations about the setting, time of day and weather. Much of the descriptions of objects, color, light and shadow are wirttenon the sketch instead of drawn directly into it. When you don’t have a lot of time with your subject, that really helps you focus on what’s important.”

Even if you’re working entirely on location or painting a still life in a studio, there’s a lot to be learned from this combination of sketching and journaling. Not only does it help you to work out the best composition, value pattern and arrangement of shapes (all of which are gleaned, in part, from examining the subject), but it also forces you to determine the most compelling aspects of the picture - most likely the things that drew you to it in the first place - which also happen to be the most important things to translate in your art.

Follow the Light
Without light we wouldn’t see anything at all, and that’s worth remembering because it means that a good picture must have something to do with good lighting. “When I’m on location and I see something I want to paint, it’s usually because of the lighting situation,” says Gunn. “Maybe it’s the way the sun is shining, or the way a subject is backlit, or maybe the light is overaccentuating some of the features. The light is really what makes the difference.”

So when you observe your subject, pay attention to (and take notes on) the characteristics of the light: its source, direction, strength and color. Think about what effect it has on the subject, such as which parts are highlighted and shadowed, and what impression this creates. And if you’re not satisfied with it, says Gunn, change it. “You can do anything with light, such as change the time of day, or create some sunshine if the sky is overcast. As long as you keep your focus on the light source, you’ll make the subject interesting.”

See What You Want to See
Perhaps the most important thing you can do to enhance your perception is adopt the right attitude, for in order to see what’s beautiful you have to be open to it. You have to believe that there’s something worth seeing just about anywhere. The artist who isn’t willing to search for beaty in unlikely places will quickly run out of subjects, but the more curious and observant artist will have more than he or she will ever need.

Observing on Paper Linda Gunn’s practice of both sketching her subject and taking notes about it helps her to focus on what’s most compelling in the picture. As you can see in the example at far right, enlarged from the sketchbook above it, the notes provide crucial information that the quick sketches alone can’t. She uses all this as reference material for her color sketches (seen here) and her completed paintings.

Tom Zeit is a senior editor for Artist’s Sketchbook and The Artist’s Magazine.