Golden Afternoon

In September my husband and I went up north to see the colors.  The trees were about 50% in color.  Two weeks later the wind and rains ravaged the leaves and the season was done.

I am taking an imaginary visit class of autumn and when I saw the picture of golden leaves overhead I knew I had to sketch it.

The sketch is done on Arches Aquarelle 140 pound cold press watercolor paper cut to 7-1/2" x 7" with my current watercolor pallet.

Horse Chestnuts

I use to collect the nuts from horse chestnut trees when I was young.  I loved their smooth skin with the wood grain lines on them.  Seeing them hanging in their pod I just had to sketch them.  This is on 7-1/2" x 7" Arches Aquarell 140 pound cold press watercolor paper using my current pallet of watercolors.

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.

Drawing Outdoors

I like trees, and this tree I have seen for years and wanted to draw it. I was afraid that I might have waited too long with the recent storms.   The structure on this tree is amazing. I almost expect a elf or other mythical creature to come froth.  It stands along a walking path on the Ford Motor Company's World Headquarters.  Just less than 500 feet from the expressway.  The path has many different species of trees and I hope to draw many of them.  I wanted to draw this tree before its foliage came out so to better show off its structure.  The two lower branches dip to  less than a foot off the ground.  Drawn with PIGMA Sakura Micron 05 sepia pen.  It was windy and getting colder so I didn't take much time to draw as I would have liked.  Next time I plan on bring a chair.

Pine Cones

This spring has been early and unseasonably warm.  Which is OK by me.  While cleaning up yard debris I came across some pine cones and decided to draw them in my journal.  I didn't think it would be so challenging as it was.  The white pine cones different angles and openness I found difficult to capture and it took me several attempts and days for me to draw.  The red pine compactness made it much easier to draw.  I found myself trying to draw a pine cone and focusing too much on thinking instead of drawing what I was seeing. Spring coming this early is going to make drawing outdoors nicer.