Raking in Shoreline

11/11/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Zig marker, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

We are having a cold (though not as cold as it is for my Midwest relatives . . . brrrr!) but beautifully sunny streak of weather this week! On my way home from a meeting in Shoreline, I drove around looking for a sketch I could do from my car. I didn’t have to go very far to find this maple – once huge and glorious, now bifurcated. Just as I was wishing I had a car or some other object nearby for scale, a teenager came out of the house and started raking. The poor kid has a big chore ahead – that maple had dropped a lot of leaves.

After I finished the color version, I got out my Kuretake brush pen and gray ink in a waterbrush to make the monochromatic version for the 5-Day Black & White Challenge. I used to think the brush pen was clumsy and difficult to control, but compared to a twig, it’s a piece o’ cake!

11/11/14 Kuretake brush pen, Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun ink