Yosemite Sketch

I am back up and running after a little scanner computer problem.  This is a pencil sketch of a painting by Thomas Hill from about 100 years ago.  Going pencil studies of paintings and scenes is a way to learn and to understand the darks and lights of a painting without worrying about color.

Tree -Capades

I decided to play with the art markers for juniper trees in two greens, one blue and one dark blue almost black.  Sort of fun and different, which is the enjoyable part.

Planning out and different mediums

There is a planning out of this painting.  I had done a few different thumb nail sketches and then I did a basic drawing to set up the perspective, a watercolor of it to consider colors and then started on the oil.

Quick Thumb Nail sketch

This is a quick Thumb Nail Sketch, i.e, it is small but is a way to quickly get the details of a scene and a way to experiment with the composition before committing to a larger piece.   I have trying to do more of these to quicken the drawing skills and to capture fleeting scenes.

Joshua Tree Sketch

More sketches from the Southwest.  This is the Joshua Tree from the deserts of Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona.  These are probably the strangest trees I have ever seen.

Cholla Cactus Sketch

I am continuing the sketches of trees and cactus.  This is a sketch of the Cholla cactus.  They have wicked bad hair like spines which are very hard to remove.  In Haiti, they had Cholla trees as big as Saguaro cactus unlike the smaller ones in SouthWest United States.

Happy Anniversary - the late version

Friday was my wedding anniversary, the one for the Army to recognize I had a wife.  It was 22 years ago.  The wife likes Day of the Dead themed things so this is her card from me.  We had the Church wedding in May so I have two anniversaries and a ring day.  (The day I gave her her engagement ring).