It’s chilly here with rains to begin at midnight. Snow is on the mountains outside the valleys around me. I miss the smell of a winter of snow and pine, in the eastern woods, Rockies, high desert. This is a simple morning sketch, iron gall ink, a water brush, some watercolor to recall the wonder of a mountain winter.
I haven’t really done much painting over the last several weeks, and it shows. There really is a disconnect when you don’t paint and practice. This is just a messy sketch (mess-a-sketch?) to warm up. Frustrating to do, but it feels good, too.
This is just a little sketch done this morning with a local Meetup group. There were only three of us, but every time I go to one of this group’s get-togethers, I feel like a princess. Alison, the leader, does a lovely job. Me, I am a no-frills type of person, so when someone goes to a lot of trouble for a simple thing, and does it with such evident pleasure, it is just a luxurious feeling!
Anyway, we met at our local library, yacked a bit about watercolor and color theory, and then moved off to the native plant garden. It was mid-90s, so a shady spot was found, we plopped down, and painted in between the chit chat. Still, I tried to focus on contrast and depth . . . this painting turned out better than I expected as it had my usual anemic colors, but ended up fairly decent. It’s about 5×7 inches.
Still working on my buildings! And in the process I realized I am dreadful when it comes to both depth of field and perspective. If you look at the roof of the building centered in the sketch, the line for it is much, much steeper than the building adjacent to it. The same with its door. It was that steep angle of perspective I was trying to follow – and failed. I have a few books on perspective – time to dig them out and study them quite seriously. I don’t think it will be that difficult, but I need to learn a few tricks. On the other hand, I am rather pleased with the sense of shadow and sunshine . . . there is still hope!
Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, the house will be back to usable today! Toilets and sinks installed and operational. I’ll find out when I get home from my watercolor class. Meanwhile, I looked through some of my photos and chanced upon one of a small flower, tiny, and thought it might be a good way to warm up for my class – before lunch – before coffee!
Ink, Yarn & Beer 