Sketch Book Series: Pruned Fig Tree (November 2011)

In this sketch, I used a gray watercolor wash to accentuate the pen and ink portrait of the fig tree. The issue was to create a homogeneous background

It Looked Better In My Mind

My watercolor wash  (More: No Power) was the first stage in an experiment I performed in my mind’s eye (not exactly a Gedanken experiment ala Einstein).  The idea was to float a neutral color on top of a colored field and set up a dissonance between foreground and background.  Hans Hofmann’s paintings were chock full of […]

Watercolor Clouds from Photograph

Today I used a reference photograph from which to model my watercolor clouds. I also used watercolor paint straight from the tube; yesterday’s watercolor was made from paint left over from previous sessions. I used Neutral Tint for all the clouds, and some cerulean for the blue. I began by defining the shapes of the […]

Landscape Sketch, With and Without Water

Nice walk to the lake today. Half hour to the lake, half hour to sketch and half hour back. That was the plan.  I brought different pencils with me: a very soft 8B, a soft 4B, another soft 2B and a harder HB. After 30 minutes sitting on a bench, I finished the sketch you […]

Two Spaces

I was struck by the difference between waiting room space and the promise of a capacious inner office, in the waiting area. The sanctum was partially visible through an open half-window, only revealing hints of what lie behind the door. If I were a child, I would have been terrified. From a lower vantage point, […]

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