Capturing Fall Colors

I am making several fall sketches for the virtual class I am taking with Laure Ferlita virtual visit to autumn.

It was fun working with the various colors on my pallet to see how they would interact with each other. Trying to capture the colors of leaves during fall can be a challenge.

Fall

I love the fall.  The cool crisp air, trees changing into beautiful colors and the smells.  The air seems more alive in fall, it is hard to explain that after the heat of summer the air changes and seems to have more energy.  The colors break up all the greens of summer and notifies me that summer is over.  I like the play of the reds, oranges and yellows against the blue sky.  The smell of burning leaves.  They remind me of childhood when we use to burn the leaves at the curb.  I sketched this leaf on Arches Aquarel 140 pound paper with pencil and watercolor paint.

Fall Vegetables

I love all the different shapes, color and sizes of winter squash.  This is sketched on 140 pound natural Arches Aquarel watercolor paper.  I lightly sketched the basic squash shapes, the wash tub and lightly sketched a border in pencil.  I like how the pumpkin turned  out.  It looks like its falling out of the picture.

Palm Trees

While on vacation in Florida I decided to try my hand at drawing palm trees.  This tree is near my parents' home.  I liked the fact that the dead branches had been trimmed and was curious why the brown sheaths were left in as well as the palm nuts.  The squirrels love to eat the nuts and tend to make a mess of them.  This tree is taller that drawn.  I wanted to show the details at the top and was unable to show the height (about 25 feet).  Drawn in my Stillman and Brin Sketchbook (7x7), with my Lami Safari extra fine point pen in Noodlers Lexington Gray ink, and my current watercolor pallet.

Painting For All

Painting with my grand nephew in his watercolor book.  When I was young I hated watercolors because the colors ran, the paper wrinkled, and the colors wouldn't stay put.  Now I still fight them sometimes, but they are more fun.

MagnoliaTree Seed Pod

Went for a walk with my father and came up to an area where the sidewalk was covered with these seed pods.  When I was coming up to them I thought they were pine cones.  This sketch was done in my 7x7 Stillman & Birn delta series journal with my Lami Safari extra fine point pen and Noodlers Lexington Gray ink.  I plan on adding color and text hopefully later today.

Eggplant Botanical

I have been wanting to draw the little eggplant growing in our garden.  I have never grown eggplant before and my husband picked up this one just to see how it would grow.  The fruit grows into 6 inch long globes of deep purple with white stripes. Only 2 globes grew at a time with the other globes waiting to grow until we picked  the ripe ones. I was going to draw the whole plant, but the fruit became so heavy that the plant toppled over and is now lying on its side, so I opted for the drawing of the leaves.  I haven't finished the whole page as I plan on drawing an eggplant dish either Eggplant Parmesan or other dish with it recipe on the other page.  Moleskin watercolor journal 5x8 with Noodler's Lexington gray ink Lami Safari pen and Smith and Daniel watercolors.