Here are
Flowers on a Table
There is something beautiful about flowers on a table, and I wanted to capture this in this quick gouache sketch.
Along the Path at Torrey Pines
I was back at Torrey Pines State Nature Reserve this morning. It has been a long time since we have had rain in San Diego and the arid landscape is a lovely combination of yellows and browns.
I had some rice paper on hand and wondered how it would work with gouache. I prepared it with watercolor grounds, but even so, it buckled in a few spots.
Artist in the Park
I noticed an artist bent over her work and quickly sketched her. I liked her intensity as she focused on her work.
This is a 9 X 9-inch (22 X 22-centimeter) gouache sketch on black paper with some pastel pencil marks.
Two Doves on the Rocks
I stopped for a few minutes at a park near my house and sketched two doves on the rocks in my small sketchbook.
From the North Side of Torrey Pines
This was a challenging painting. It started off as a quarter sheet of paper covered with golden watercolor grounds. I have been wondering about the gold background for seascapes and today seemed like a good day to explore this, since I would be painting with friends. I began by blocking in some of the major big shapes of the view of Torrey Pines looking south from the north parking lot. Soon I had a gray scene that was not very interesting. At about an hour into this painting, I got out a pen and drew lines, trying to save the sketch by defining the edges of the mountain, foliage, and sea.
I left Torrey Pines thinking I would abandon this sketch but after putting it aside and then looking again, I wondered if the problem might be a lack of contrast. Because I used gouache transparently over the gold watercolor ground, the sketch was mostly middle values. I lightened the central area, brought in some blue to the trees in the upper left, added the boulders at the lower left, painted over some of the pen lines, and decided I liked the sketch after all.
At this point, I prefer the gold grounds for figures, but don’t want to give up too quickly on the golden seascapes.
This is gouache, gel pen, and watercolor pencil sketch on a quarter sheet of watercolor paper that was prepared with gold watercolor grounds.
Looking Afar II
Yesterday I did a series of 20-minute sketches of a wonderful model. She had a pensive air that was communicated through her long limbs and facial expressions. Although I had to work fast, choosing colors and brushes was intuitive because her body language was so clear.
This gouache sketch was on a large 20 x 15-inch panel that was prepared with watercolor grounds. Today I went back and cleaned up parts of this sketch by lifting off some of the color that seemed too intense to me today.
Looking Afar
I painted with other painters Thursday morning. Our model seemed pensive and trying to capture this in a sketch became my goal for the morning. I got a good start in this twenty-minute sketch and left the studio with several sketches that I could develop further.
This is a 12 x 12-inch gouache sketch with white and black pastel lines.
Deliberate Sketching 