November Rain

Today  is the aftermath of an early snowstorm. 

But just a few days ago I took this photo...

New weather had first brought winds 
that yanked the leaves from the trees
...then calming rains 
left drops clinging to branches.
 It inspired this pastel...

 
 

Spring Weather

Capturing unpredictable spring weather.

Above a fog bank moves onshore

and then spring rain over the marsh.

Both sketches employ watercolour and watercolour crayons.

Positive / Negative Space

This poor old bush struggling for survival, 

at first appeared to be a rather uninspiring subject. 

However after some cropping 

and further thought 

I started to see an idea emerge.....

the interplay of positive /negative use of space.

In the top half of the sketch 

I used the traditional 

light (leaves) against dark (background).

While on the bottom half 

the shadowy darks play against the light reflections.

I worked on a midtone pastel paper 

with watercolour pencils and crayons 

to enhance the contrast.

Although as I review this post
I think perhaps the cropped photo 
is more successful than the sketch.
In the photo the bright greens 
allow the top to be slightly more dominant 
giving the eye a place to rest 
whereas in the sketch
both halves are equally strong
making it somewhat unsettling.

Such is life!

Sketchbook - Woodlands 2014

 Two watercolour sketches from last summer.

In this one I'm exploring 

the contrast between old bark 

and the delicate undergrowth of ferns and vines.

If you watch kids on a woodland hike 

they spend a lot of time looking at the ground

...good idea!

There's interesting stuff below our feet.

Old Cedar Trees - Pastel

This group of old cedar trees were full of character 

and a good subject for studying colour 

in the landscape 

as well as light and shade.

I exaggerated the light areas

 in order to create interest across the picture plane

and used the pink, turquoise green contrast as a colour scheme.

I perhaps made the trees too evenly spaced - 

the arrangement of trees is more interesting in the photo.

Maybe next time!

Nature Studies

Restricting myself to coloured pencils has proved limiting 

so I will continue my experiments by exploring other media.

However I will continue the general theme of "patterns in nature".