The Sketcher

I was out with my plein air group today and sketched a fellow painter who was working under a nearby shade tree. The tilt of her head along with her hand raised a bit above her sketchbook suggested to me that she was thinking about what kind of mark to make next.  She seemed so focused on her work, so into her art, it made me want to work just as intensely.

Yesterday I worked with crisp color and lines. Today I went for a moody look with cloudy boundaries between objects. Although in general I prefer crisp color, cloudy colors seemed like the right choice for a sketcher sitting under a shade tree while immersed in her work.

This is a gouache sketch in a 9 X 9 inch Derwent sketchbook.