After the Storms that Broke the Drought

It was a gorgeous day and well spent with my landscape class at San Dieguito County Park. I pretty much painted the same scene from the same spot last week but several stormy days resulted in so much more greenery that the two sketches hardly look the same. It is amazing what a difference the combination of water and a week can make.

Most trees do not yet have leaves but their canopy is so full of new twigs and buds that the sky was blocked out behind them. The day was partially overcast and the lighting shifted between strong lights with shadows to muted lights with muted shadows. As I thought about how to show this moment of spring my intention was to use flat blocks of color separated by edges of unpainted black paper throughout the entire sketch. However, as I painted the lower section of the sketch I found it had too much contrast and filled in the unpainted areas somewhat.

This is a watercolor, gouache and pastel sketch on black paper.