Telluride’s Oak Street Plaza
I set off to do abstract gouache sketches of landscapes but somehow ended up sketching with pen and watercolor in a 9 X 12 inch sketchbook.
This is a small plaza in Telluride where people catch the free gondola that takes them over the mountain that separates the two neighborhoods in this area. It is a busy place and a great spot for quick sketches of people.
The San Miguel River Again
In yesterday’s sketch I worked to get a fairly realistic sketch of an actual place along the San Miguel River just outside Telluride Colorado. The parts of the finished sketch that I found most pleasing were the large abstract trees on the right side.
I wondered what this same scene might look like if the full sketch were done more abstractly in a style similar to the pleasing trees. I stayed home today and used yesterday’s sketch as a reference for this second sketch of the San Miguel River. Although I like the water in the first sketch more, overall I do like this second sketch better. I plan to work in this style for the next few days but will do so outside on location so I catch more of the excitement of the scene.
This is a gouache sketch in an 8 X 12 inch Derwent sketchbook with black paper.
Along the San Miguel River
This is a gouache sketch in a 12 X 12 inch Derwent sketchbook.
Indian Paintbrush
The other day I did some small simple sketches of fields, mountains and sky using gouache on small sheets of black paper. I was practicing quickly placing the big shapes down in a free sort of way and did not expect to ever look at the work again. Today, though, I thought to use these as a background for sketches of wildflowers. Using pastels, I added a few stems of Indian Paintbrush, one of my favorite wildflowers, along with some aspen leaves and wild grass.
Clouds Crowd the San Juan Mountains
The clouds today rolled down the mountains and I worked to capture this in today’s sketch. This is a sketch of one of the mountains that rises up from the south side of Telluride valley floor and was made with gouache and pastel in a 12 x 12 inch black Derwent sketchbook.
Along the Jud Wiebe Trail
I spent the afternoon sketching along Telluride’s Jud Wiebe Trail. It is a steep three-mile trail with a climb of 1,300 feet. Stopping to sketch along the way definitely made the assent much easier for me than normal and is a strategy I plan to use more often.
I worked mostly with pastel pencil and made several value sketches of the mountains and vegetation. I feel I am making progress on painting mountains but this pastel and gouache sketch of the plants along a portion of the trail is my favorite. This gouache and pastel sketch is in a 12 x 12 inch black Derwent sketchbook.
Telluride Mountains and Meadows
I have been working on sketching the mountains in this area and am having trouble getting a feeling of distance in these sketches. I think I need to fade out the distant mountains more and include more of the vibrant detail of the meadow. Tomorrow I will go back to this same meadow and make myself do multiple 10-minute charcoal sketches of this same scene, each time varying the composition until I can better convey the feeling of the mountains rising high above the meadow.
This is a gouache and pastel sketch on 12 x 12 inch black Derwent paper.
Deliberate Sketching 