California has a wonderful number of coastal state parks. Pigeon Point is one of them. This park features a lighthouse, coastal cliffs, hiking trails – all the usual attractions. It is located south of San Francisco and worth the time to visit.
I tried to capture a bit of the wildness here with a sense of a windy day. Simplification of the foreground was a challenge. The first step was to lay down a very wet wash of yellow and green and letting them dry. From there, a bit of detail, using both dry brush and wet-into-rewetted paper.
The sky was laid in with clear water first, and from there the sky and clouds were given shape using mostly ultramarine blue in varying strengths. Once laid in, nothing was done.
The ocean was a bit tricky. There were multiple colors of blue and green and aqua. Sea foam and waves, too, added to the scene. The protruding rocks and boulders near and far add a bit of drama, and a bit of a problem! First I laid down a clear water puddle, avoiding the rocks in the foreground and the distant lands. From there, slow layering of colors, sometimes wet-in-wet, sometimes rewetting and adding color.
The distant coast was laid in with a number of simple washes, eventually building up contrast and shapes. The same was done with the rocks in the foreground, between the green slope and the horizon, but the washes were a bit darker. Once the foreground rocks were dry, increasingly less wet and more intense paints were done.
The final touches were to use titanium white gouache to get a sense of sea foam, hide a mistake or two, and complete details. I tried to work with a good sense of contrast that conveyed distance – in some ways it worked, and others it did not. This being watercolor, I think I finished in time!
Watercolors with some gouache, 11×14 Arches 140# rough paper.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 