sketches

Day two hundred and eighty-seven: I generally try to keep a positive attitude about my sketches, but I must admit I’m less than delighted with the last couple of figure studies. So I decided to take a little break from that, and dabble again with watercolor. I’m quite pleased with the sky in this landscape, as I discovered a new way to layer the brush strokes of broad wash to create clouds. And on a whim I tried putting a bit of pink and orange into the grasses. This is an idea I want to explore more in the future. If used sparingly, I think colors like these may be a great way to bring variety and depth within grasses, and in a sense, excite the eye in an unexpected way in a rather expected sort of scene. The short little horizontal strokes that fill the field were inspired by a drawing by van Gogh, in which he did something quite similar. On a similar note, I felt it would be appropriate to layer squiggles into the foliage in the distance.