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| 6/23/20 Green Lake neighborhood |
Among Seattle’s common trees is a very dark red, nearly purple
one (see below) that has small pink blossoms in spring. The foliage stays this color year-round
until the leaves fall off in autumn. With the help of social media, I finally
learned that it is an ornamental plum.
These ubiquitous trees are tough to sketch. If I make them
too bright red or red-orange, they look like maples in the fall. If I try to
replicate that very dark color, it’s often too violet or nearly black. Since I’m
sketching and not making a botanical drawing, accurately representing the hue
is not critical; I don’t expect viewers to be able to identify a tree species
from a sketch. Trees do, however, provide information about the location and
season, so they can be an important part of an urban sketch’s “story.” I don’t
want a sketch to be mistaken for late-autumn if I made it in June.
In this sketch, I used Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle Russet
(065), which is too orange and too bright (with French Grey 808 for the
shadows). I’m looking through my pencils to find a better hue and will report back
the next time I sketch one of these plums.
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| Ornamental plum trees, Green Lake neighborhood |
You need some Prismacolors-Black Cherry, Black Grape or Black Raspberry! But the light in your sketch could never be mistaken for autumn. The haze, the yellow green and those shadows are all early summer.
ReplyDeleteOh, I do have those Prismas! I'll try those next, but I think I found a good Caran d'Ache that will do the trick. Stay tuned. And good point about the light... everything is cooler in the autumn and winter.
DeleteImpressive trees...don't know if I've ever seen any of those here. They have an impressive fullness to them. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joan! I guess these plums must be a regional thing... some other friends on social media mentioned that they were unfamiliar with them.
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