I love sketching people on the move. This is from Hapuna Beach, Hawaii, where I was drawing with pastels after a long swim. I saw a man going down to the water with a towel for his companion. They both seemed so vigorous and alive. I admired them and tried to capture their lively steps in this sketch. Later I painted the sketch with gouache.
The Thursday Plein Air group painted at a small flower farm in east San Diego County. I liked this view of one of the old farm cottages surrounded by shade and foliage.
We went to Southern Arizona for a long weekend. The first morning I was up before the sun and sketched the first rays of sunshine as it came over the Cochise Mountains onto the desert floor and the bare branches of a mesquite tree.
The second day I sketched the mesquite tree in daylight.
On the third morning, before sunrise, I sketched a sliver of the moon, the mesquite tree, and the night sky.
I had a great time camping with several artist-friends earlier this week. The Fresno River and the surrounding area inspired and kept us all busy. We shared our work throughout the day, and seeing the work of the others caused me to do more drawing and even try some abstracts. Here is a sample of what I did.
I painted the massive boulders that lined the river.
The morning view looking across the river.
My fellow campers,
And even tried my hand at nature-inspired abstracts.
From the first campfire of the new camping year, such fun to be with good artist friends!
The model for this sketch is from this week’s figure drawing session at the San Diego Watercolor Society. I painted this model once before, and both times felt that her hair and gaze strongly communicated her confidence, and I wanted to show it in this painting.
Yesterday I attended the figure drawing session at the San Diego Watercolor Society. This is one of the warm-up sketches where I used three values to understand who I was drawing and how I would paint the model.
Deliberate Sketching 