Some of you know that I often take advantage of long car trips to get a bit of drawing in. Usually the time before, during, and after a trip has strings attached: endless to-do lists, people to call or see, and time to rest (we are not spring chickens!).
On the way out, we enjoyed good weather and I sketched with my Pitt pen directly onto the sketchbook pages, in the mood for black and white ink drawings. You can read about these and see what I drew at this post for the Sketching in Nature blog.
On the way back, however, I felt the need for color! The top painting is a quick and loose impression of the Alabama countryside as it flashed by. I find that the practice of being forced to focus on images and commit details to memory has helped me. I have a good color memory, but I don’t remember unfamiliar shapes well. The more I do, though, the better my observation powers.
We ran into a massive rainstorm later, which eliminated my outdoor subjects. There weren’t even any interesting clouds, just uniform grayness obscuring most everything. I had picked up some leaves at a rest stop, so I settled in for some ink and watercolor work. The road was a bit bumpy, but I just went with it…it added a little more character and a further connection to the moment in time.
If you'd like to visit my my past post on car sketching, click here, and visit this link to my Flickr photostream if you'd like to see my old travel set-up, which shows my Sennelier travel watercolor set (I used my Daniel Smith travel palette on this tip).
You can click on the images to view larger. Thanks for visiting!
Love, love, love your loose color sketch! And, you're right. The more you press the memory envelope, the more it behaves :)
ReplyDeleteLove your comment about the bumps in the road adding character! Well said and lovely sketches to boot.
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing, Elizabeth! I've done car sketching too, but nothing like this!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pam! I really need to loosen up more, don't I? There's that part of me that needs to make detailed marks for some reason.
ReplyDeleteLaure, those bumps were frustrating at first, but I decided to turn them around and go with it. It was the interstate but it was under construction, so there would be nice smooth road, then bumpbumpbump! Thanks!
Thank you so much Kate! Sometimes the stars line up just right and it turns out, and this time was one of those.
Very cool, Elizabeth. You made good use of your driving time.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathy! Better than listening to the radio for me!
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