Recent Sketches

I have been doing some sketches lately. The sketches are of cranberry fields near Longbeach, Washington. These sketches were done from photos on my iPhone.

We spent a few days camping at Fort Stevens on the coast. Cool and overcast most of the time. I took my easel to Coffinbury Lake and did this little sketch.

We spent a few nights at little Cooper Spur Resort. I walked up to the ski resort and did this little painting of the ski runs. It was very quiet, almost spooky. No one else was around.

I am presenting these pieces as challenge to myself. A painting a day.

Watercolor sketches

I painted this from a photo, concentrating on large color patches and value. I tried to keep it loose with a limited palette. It ended up being really fun.

Limited palette

These watercolor sketches were from photos. I wanted to limit the palette and concentrate on value. The two groupings began with a palette consisting of Alizarin Crimson, Payne's Grey, Cadmium Yellow and the second group consisted of Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow and Cobalt Blue. I could not help but to use a few other colors as well. The lesson and success of focusing on the limited palette is creating the greens and depth of the forest without focusing on the local color.